"Holy shit, Liam! I thought I'd be gone because of you! Why in the world are you holding a knife!" Ian was shocked by what happened and started blaming his friend.
"Hey! Calm down! I didn't know that it was you outside, okay? I'm sorry." Liam almost immediately apologized after what he just did.
"What the fuck!? So if it wasn't me here in this door, you're gonna kill that someone! That's very nice, Liam." He replied in a sarcastic tone.
"Uh. I-It's not like that, you know. It's just that I had a weird premonition... Hm?"
Liam stopped mid-sentence when he realized the eerie feeling was still there, but it wasn't coming from his friend instead it was coming a few meters away from his house. So he averted his gaze from Ian as he looked outside but he still couldn't see anything because of the darkness of the night.
"Discerning Eye. Crystal Vision." Liam whispered the names of his skills for them to activate.
He specifically chose these two skills because it would give him the advantage to be able to sense whatever or whoever was releasing such aura. One would increase his perception and make him sense a presence well while the other would make him see things more detailed and clearer.
After focusing his eyes outside for a while, Liam was eventually able to sight three people outside. All of them were a male wearing dark clothing while wearing masks different from each other.
Two of the guys were crouching behind the bushes to hide, only revealing their upper part of the body, while the last guy with the clown mask was leaning his back on a broken street lamp.
He was holding a dagger in his right hand, somewhat swaying it in the air, and a moment later, he turned his head in Liam's direction.
The startled Liam trembled when the man with the creepy clown mask looked at him. He felt an extremely sharp gaze stabbing him coming from behind that mask.
On the other hand, Ian noticed something strange about his friend, his expression look troubled, so he looked in the direction where his friend was facing and was able to see a silhouette of a man under the broken street lamp, and that was when he realized this situation is not normal.
It was suspicious so he asked.
"Liam, what is this...? Do you have an idea what is happening?"
While waiting for an answer to reach him, at the same time, the two guys behind the bushes suddenly stood up and walked in the direction of the other guy.
"This..."
Liam knew the fact that their current situation didn't look good but he couldn't answer him right away because everything that had been happening was too fast.
The eerie sensation that he was feeling was getting worse and worse over time so he pulled Ian inside the house as he quickly closed the door.
Ian was a bit surprised. Judging by his movement, his friend, Liam, must know something about what's happening, or at the very least, he knew what to do in this situation.
"Hey... Do you perhaps know something about this? What's with those guys?"
"I don't know, but this doesn't feel normal. Those guys... They seem to have an objective here. Robbery...?"
"I notice that too. Should we call the police? We can just lock the door and wait for them to come over, right?"
"We could but—"
While trying to come up with an idea of what to do, Liam felt a chill ran down his spine. A murderous intent was oozing from outside.
"Ian, go upstairs."
Ian was a bit shocked. Liam's mood changed almost instantly. He never imagined his friend being extremely serious like right now.
Just what happened for him to turn like this?
But just as he was about to ask something, Liam suddenly opened the door again. Ian saw the three guys coming to them and was already half-way from reaching them.
"Wha, What are they doing?"
"I don't think that this will be just a simple robbery so go."
"But what are you gonna do?! You can't just stay here! D-Do you even have a plan?"
"Go upstairs, Ian!"
Ian was a bit skeptical about it but when he heard Liam's shout, he decided to follow his order and went upstairs. At the very least, he also wanted to help his friend to push the guys away from their place, but he felt something different in his tone and his eyes that made him follow what he said without a slight hesitation.
"Accurate Throw."
Liam made sure that Ian was nowhere here before activating the Accurate Throw skill as he started to focus. He held the knife behind him tighter and planned to throw it at one of the guys, but he was hesitant.
Stabbing a person with a knife? At worst, he could kill a person by doing it.
He never had a thought of doing something like that until now. At least in normal circumstances.
But right now, his situation was entirely different. His instincts felt their hostility, no, their intent to murder. And the fact that his perceptive ability never lied to him, startled him even more. So he prepared himself for what is to come and concentrated. A second later, he threw the knife aiming at the right shoulder of the guy in front of the others.
"!"
Before the guy could even react and dodge the thrown weapon., it had already pierced through his shoulder.
"Ack!"
The guy was hit, and even though it was not in a vital part that could threaten his life to an extent, it was still enough to make him feel a hellish pain. He made a pitiful cry before falling on the grass floor.
"Y-You...!"
The guy didn't know how a kitchen knife could badly hurt a well-trained man like him, and above all, it was thrown by an unknown kid who seemed to be a student in university.
The other people with him seemed shocked and dumbstruck when they saw their companion crying in pain because of what happened, but they soon regained their senses.
The person with the clown mask who was holding a dagger in his hand, went on the floor on one knee to look at the other guy's wound.
The thrown knife was deeply pierced inside the guy's shoulder that even the tip of the blade can be seen at his back. After seeing the severeness of the wound the clown masked was taken aback.
'That kid made enough force for the knife to penetrate through his shoulder. It's already surprising that he even hit him with the distance between us.'
If he hadn't known from research that the guy who threw the knife was just a classmate and friend of their target, he would assume that the guy who threw the knife was an expert.
'Did he receive training for this...? Either way, we can get rid of him once we get close.'
Tap.
The last guy was the only one standing. While the other two, the one with the clown mask and the injured one, seemed to retreat, he was walking slowly towards the direction of the kid.
"Hey, uh, kid. Where did your friend go? You probably know that this is kinda shady judging from what you, uhm, did to my companion. But to tell you the truth, I am just a thief in our group, which is somehow good, meaning I'm not going to hurt you."
The guy suddenly started nonchalantly speaking to Liam.
"But-! If you don't plan to give him to us... I'm afraid that something bad will happen to you sooner or later." The guy who called himself a thief threatened Liam but still with a casual tone.
"I don't fucking care and don't you dare move!" Liam didn't care less about what the guy was saying and was preparing to fight as he shouted at the thief.
The guy chuckled as he looked at the kid who was seemingly trying to act tough.
"What're you gonna do? Throw your hand and stab me too?"
Liam made a fighting stance. A sideways and a wide stance. His dominant foot was placed in front of the other with both legs slightly bent. His right hand was placed near his chin and his left hand was in front, slightly higher than his shoulder.
He may look like a tough one to fight by doing this but inside he was nervous and doesn't know what to do. Even his stance was just a half-baked copy of the original one from an old graphic novel. This was his first fight in a very long time and he had nothing on his hands to scare the guys outside so he just made up something to look prepared.
Liam checked the system and noticed that the Athletic skill would eventually deactivate in 5 minutes. He needed to settle this quicker.
Soon, he closed the system and took a look straight. His expression turned sour when he realized that the thief was nowhere to be found in his earlier position and was now running towards him.
"Shit!" Liam took a step backward as he saw the guy who appeared in front of him without a warning.
WHOOSH!
The thief's fist flew towards him but he dodged it by a hair's breadth.
The thief tried to kick him after but he was nowhere to be seen in his sight, then a baseball bat was suddenly flying to his face. He blocked it with his left hand but the impact of the throw still managed to hurt him.
"keuk! You coward fuck!"
Liam moved forward the moment the bat hit the thief and immediately kicked his side. The thief immediately jumped away from Liam.
The two were now in the living room. And within that single moment, both of them recognized the incredible speed of Liam himself.
'How the hell is this kid faster than me?!'
'I'm... this fast?'
Not a few seconds later, the thief turned his body in front of Liam and took a few steps back to create himself a good stance but before he could even prepare, Liam was already running towards him at full speed with his fist aiming at his face, so he tried to block the fist by crossing both of his arms.
Liam saw the thief's sudden defense so he made halt his movements and averted his hand. He took that opportunity and changed his stance in an instant before kicking the thief's side once again.
The thief tripped from the impact of the strike and fell over to the glass table. He stood back up again facing Liam a few meters away from him.
It was sudden but both looked at the glass shards and glanced at each other for another while.
The thief was the first one to move again and he started to pick up some of the shards with his black gloves while on the other, Liam dashed to get him.
He then threw all the glass shards at the kid running towards him.
Liam saw the scattered shards flying at him and reflexively crossed his arms to protect his eyes. Some of the shards pierced and wounded his arms and some even managed to get through and wounded his face.
Blood started pouring from the more open wounds and even his face didn't manage to avoid looking messed up made by the scratches.
However, that didn't stop Liam from attacking the thief. The distance was cut as he stretched his arm and hit his stomach. Without letting a second pass, he backed away, kicked his crotch, and bashed his face with a strike of his elbow.
The thief lied down on the floor, struggling from the pain and agony, and a moment later, he lost consciousness.
『 The skill [Athletic] has been deactivated. 』
『 The skill [Crystal Vision] and [Perceptiveness] has been deactivated. 』
Liam heaved a sigh of relief, realizing that he managed to keep up before his skills deactivate. He checked the system and read his stats which was dwindled because of the fight earlier. His HP was now 75, MP was 7, and his Stamina was down to 62%.
Liam, feeling something odd, stared at the body on the ground and had a sudden idea.
"This is the right time to test my Appraisal skill, isn't it?"
He activated the Appraisal a moment later and tried to check the thief's stats.
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
Stat Window
Name: Anthony Rendon
Level: 13
Job: Thief
HP: 23
MP: None
Stamina: 34%
[Attributes]
Strength: 10+
Dexterity: 10+
Intelligence: 8
Endurance: 10
Perception: 6
[Skills]
Passive Skills:
> Thieving Master Lv. 3
> Hand Fighting Techniques Lv. 1
Active Skills:
> Stealth Lv. 1
> Dash Lv. 1
> Sleight of Hands Lv. 1
﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
'I can't see a stat level above 10. I assume this is due to the Appraisal skill's current level. And now that I took a look at this... He's a thief like what he said, and his job and skills are here to confirm that fact.'
Liam was in deep thought after making an interest in what the skill 'Appraisal' can do.
"I don't know how he learned the skill 'Stealth' but it could be awfully useful if it works like what I have in mind."
"And if somehow, by some godly ways, I could learn that skill, also putting in the fact that the system can amplify skills with levels, I can be invisible..."
'But will that ever gonna happen?'
He revealed his thoughts concerning the thief's Stealth skill and what he would or could do if he somehow had it until the notification from the System suddenly echoed again.
Liam opened the system and was once again surprised.
『 The task [ Defeat an enemy to the point of being unconscious.] has been completed. You gained 2 Stat Points and 3 Skill Points. 』
『 The task [ Activate 5 different skills at the same time.] has been completed. You gained 4 Stat Points and 5 Skill Points. 』
"H-Holy... Is the system trying to be generous? I didn't expect the tasks to work like this. I didn't even check the contents inside it but I already have completed some of it." Liam was in awe after seeing this sudden event.
He didn't expect the system to send out Task Completion and its rewards out of nowhere.
DING!
『 The prerequisite condition has been met. The [Skill Absorption] skill has been learned by the host. 』
『 The [Skill Absorption] skill lets the user absorb one skill of their target and learn it. It can be activated when the target was beaten to an unconscious state or killed by the user. 10 minutes cooldown. 』
Not giving him any more time to talk about the previous surprise, another one came out.
"Ab, Absorbs... W-What?!" Liam read it three times already to confirm that his eyes weren't deceiving him but he really couldn't believe it.
Liam felt like the heavens are smiling at him due to the coincidence and sheer luck that just happened in front of him.
"Stealth... The Stealth! I can get that skill, right now!" He exclaimed after realizing this.
A moment after learning how to do it, Liam immediately walked near the thief and tried to place his right hand on top of the thief.
As soon as he placed his hand an inch above the body, he muttered, "Skill Absorption," before a new notification from the system appeared.
『 What skills would you like to choose? 』
『 Choose randomly. Thieving (P). Hand Fighting Techniques (P). Stealth (A)... 』
Not even bothering to read the other skills, Liam immediately chose what he wanted the most and said the word with anticipation.
"Stealth."
『 The process of absorbing and learning the skill will be finished in a minute. 』
He couldn't believe it. Absorbing a skill from another person and learning it straight away.
"I feel like I'm cheating, right now. Oh, wait. I'm gonna asked Ian if he knows about these three guys."
Liam was so immersed in the system that he completely forgot about something.
"...Wait. Three guys?" As he came to realization, Liam suddenly felt a presence behind him so he quickly turned around and saw the guy with the clown mask standing menacingly.
Before he could even react to it, the guy immediately kicked Liam's stomach as he stood up from his previous position.
Urk!
He received a critical hit yet Liam still tried to stand, but before he could even try to take a breather, he saw a fairly big and ripped elbow covering his entire vision and soon landed in his face.
His vision went blank for a moment after receiving the impact. And while he was trying to balance himself, the aftereffect of being hit in the stomach appeared.
"Ugh...!"
Liam coughed a mouthful of blood as he took a few steps back away from the clown-masked guy. He decided to use a skill but most of the useful skills were in cooldown so he had no choice but to pick the easiest one to draw.
"Accurate Throw."
Liam went to the broken glass table and grabbed two pointed steel bars in it with both of his hands. He threw one to the guy at an incredible speed before casting the skill again and shoot the last one.
"Hm?"
The clown-masked guy saw steel bars flying towards his face. He was a bit surprised after noticing that the steel bar was accurately aimed at his head but he eventually caught the flying steel bar.
"Bad move."
He then swung the steel bar he caught and smashed it into the other steel bar that was about to hit him, making it flew to the side. Like nothing has ever happened, the guy held the steel bar tightly and to his back before he threw it to Liam with great power.
"Gu- Aaargh!" Liam screamed in pain.
His body was pushed back as the steel bar pierced through his shoulder. His legs couldn't withhold the pain as he knelt on the floor.
A prickling, painful sensation spread from his shoulder through all parts of his body. He never felt something like this before in his entire life, but now he had to go through this intense pain just to protect himself and also his friend.
But he thought, in the end, will he be able to?
Tap, tap.
"You're good at throwing things, kid. I wouldn't be surprised if you told me that you trained for years, but..." A deep, threatening voice came from inside the creepy clown mask.
"But it's not enough to take someone like me down. I don't know how you beat my man here, but what I know is... You're gonna die by my hands today for getting our task delayed."
The guy pulled his dagger out from his vest.
"So prepare yourself."
As if to imitate the kid, he took a few steps back and pointed his dagger at Liam's head before throwing the dagger towards him.
PSHLK!
The sound of flesh being pierced reverberated throughout the room. The guy heard that but he didn't feel relief in the slightest.
'This kid...'
Liam stopped the dagger from stabbing his chest by blocking it with his bare hand.
His blood trickled from his hand and fell to the floor before he opened his mouth and stared at the guy.
"I've beaten your guy with skills... just like how I will do, to take you down, right now."
Liam announced with his eyes lit up like a raging fire.