"To kick things off, I presume that the Filler party members knew me from the start. Not everyone of them, but most of them did know me. They probably took me with them because…they wanted revenge, maybe my life and I…Sigh! They were not pretty good in hiding their lust for my life. I guess the only way someone can lead me inside a dungeon is that' that they must seek my life. Otherwise I would have never entered a dungeon." Helkep finally started confronting the things that he had been trying to ignore.
"Though I can't remember who they are, not like I can remember everyone of the people I bullied. They were probably victims of my pride. …I guess that is also a reason I never tried to fight back. …It must have started when I first experienced fear and humiliation, when my innate skill was proven useless I started to know what it was to have fear, how it felt when someone could do something that you couldn't, what it felt to be...on the ground." Helkep's eyes were starting to get dimmer. It was hard to look at them and a weird aura started seeping out of him.
"The reason I have been bullied so many times and have never fought back. The reason I have forgotten what is to pursue power is because…of guilt... If it was the young me, he would have killed himself than let himself be bullied because of guilt. That young me was… a devil in the skin of a human. A deceiver, the greatest deceiver. I guess guilt was the thing I was never meant to have, that must be the reason I lost my talent... the reason I lost myself." Helkep silently digested the information that he was finally revealing to himself. Those things that while knowing them he had forcefully tried to ignore. The things that he didn't want himself to know.
"The Filler party must've wanted to kill me. Though fate truly is unpredictable. I wonder just how many people are there that seek my life. Excluding those who are currently able to use me. …There would be a lot, I wonder if I would be forgiven if I died." Helkep looked at the lizard who was staring at him with a weird look.
"Anyways I wonder how my innate skill was activated. If it really was simple as the fact that I simply needed to wait for a specific time then I would have been able to use it from way long ago. There must been a certain condition that allowed it to be used and now… I can't use it. Mana skills and innate skills are useable, innate skill, the skill that one never has problem with and the skill that accompanies you from the start, your partner, that is the thing that I am not able to use. Truth be told I can't blame others for saying that I can't use skills." Helkep looked at the lizard who had slowly moved to the the end of the room.
"I should tr… no there is no need to find out, there is no point in it. When they realise that I have started to… Sigh! Let's get some sleep." Helkep looked at the time and decided to get some shut eye.
Tomorrow morning Helkep was surprised to find the brothers had already left and …there were unwashed dishes in the sink, proving they had prepared their own food.
'Things have started to change… will I be forced to change? …No, I will not get involved in this. And if fate tries to force me too, I will resist it. I will try my best to stay away.' Helkep firmed his decision and prepared himself for his class.
The lizard just stared at him as he did his things. Helkep called out the hidden boss and asked him to stay with the lizard. But… the hidden boss turned away his face and went back inside the shadow.
Helkep stared blankly at the lizard, excitedly staring at his shadow.
'What is he doing?' Helkep wondered and thought of an excuse for bringing the lizard inside the class.
Opening the door he looked back and asked the lizard to go back inside. The lizard… circled to his left.
'Just trying.' Helkep started walking towards his class. Thinking of an excuse for bringing the lizard inside, since it wasn't going to stay somewhere else.
- - -
"Yo! Let's get going." Helkep stared at Noil standing in front of the door leading to his first class.
Helkep looked away and grabbed the doorknob, completely ignoring Noil's presence.
"Sigh! Naughty as always." Noil grabbed Helkep by the arm and dragged him to the resting area.
Helkep followed Noil quietly before suddenly asking, "Where are we going?"
"To the resting area." Noil replied, finally relieved at the fact that Helkep hadn't gone mute, like he was thinking he had.
"What are we going to do there?" Helkep asked, staring at the arm enclosed in his arm.
"Get you some equipment." Noil replied. He looked at Helkep weirdly before asking, "Are you alright?"
"Yes. Why?" Helkep pulled his arm towards himself, reminding Noil to let it go.
"Well! …You were acting pretty weird yesterday. I thought something had happened, something with core." Noil wasn't a complete idiot, he knew Helkep changed when he handed him the core.
"Something with core, I guess so. You don't have to think about it and I am sorry for ruining your plans." Helkep looked at Noil's arm still around his arm.
"Nah! I didn't even have any plans on continuing, after all I wasn't able to use any skills for sometime. Anyways … you seem pretty… active today." Noil was feeling something weird from Helkep, he felt as if Helkep was more... … … energetic. He felt as if he wouldn't mind taking someone's life or something.
"Okay." Helkep pulled his arm again, which we completely ignored by Noil. The lizard just kept on following them, quietly. Making sure to not interrupt their fun.
As the two were looking at equipments in the resting area, Ella in Helkep's first class was wondering why he hadn't attended the class today.
Noil was currently inside an equipment store and was browsing through a transparent screen, which was displayed on the receptionist desk.
Above the desk, attached to the wall was a glass shield, behind the glass, a vague silhouette of a person could be seen.
Their appearance wasn't visible as there was only a small gap in the glass from where the receptionist could show the weapons, the customer demanded
"Which weapon do you want Helkep?" Noil asked while looking at the wide range of weapons available.
"Anything." Helkep asked while looking at the guard who was eyeing them angrily.
Previously the lizard tried to follow them inside but the guard stopped it as pets weren't allowed. Noil tried to ease things up by bribing the guard, the guard refused as he would get in trouble.
The lizard kept trying to follow them inside, and someone with high authority who was coming out of the store saw the situation. Without even saying a thing the person waved his hand towards the two. Noil gave a happy smile and handed him a small gift.
Then he handed him a big gift and pointed towards the guard. The man sneered and nodded towards Noil, without saying a thing anymore Noil walked inside the store waving towards Helkep to follow him.
The man sneered towards the guards and… well the guard could guess… his days were numbered. Hence the current situation of the guard trying to devour the two with his eyes.
"By the way! Where is the fire goblin?" Helkep asked as he remembered the goblin while looking at the lizard.
"I told my mother about it, she said it was dangerous having an unchecked monster around. She told me to keep it locked until she sends someone to help me enter a contract with it." Noil replied as he zoomed-in on a weapon to see its details.
"Helkep it's a good thing you are confident on using any weapon but you still need to know that a good weapon in a dire situation can save your life. It's best you master a specific weapon and have a custom weapon made to suit you. Sometimes a weapon can be very useful in life and death situations, you shouldn't ignore their use so easily." Noil looked at Helkep and spoke earnestly.
The man behind the desk couldn't help but nod approvingly at Noil's words.
Helkep's mind went blank for a second before he thought, 'This idiot… is teaching me!?'
Noil couldn't help but feel proud on the fact that Helkep was left speechless on his words. It seemed that the effort he had spent on reading a boring article last night hadn't gone to waste.
"But for now just take a dagger." Noil was practically drooling on the nice design of the dagger.
"..." The receptionist couldn't help but be left stunned by the sudden turn of events. Helkep could only shake his head.
Getting the dagger, the two moved on from the weapons desk to the pills desk.
A single counter only had one category of items. This was how an equipment store for hunters was. All the stores were like this.
Large but only the first floor available. The first floor contained desks which had one category of items. With nothing else. The rest of the store was used to create and store equipments.
After buying some pills, the two headed towards the Volcanic Land. They didn't even think of buying potions, they were cheaper but they were inconvenient compared to the small size of pills.
Inside the first floor of the Volcanic Land. Noil looked around, surveying every nook and cranny.
He was on guard since the last time they were immediately forced to fight two mini bosses.
Seeing no monster in sight, Noil finally got relieved and asked Helkep, "So what skill did you obtain yesterday? I don't have much expectations since you learned it so quickly but still I need to know what I can expect from an ingrate like you." Noil said as he motioned Helkep to use the skill on him.
"Let's find a monster." Helkep had no intention of weakening Noil before they even fought monsters.
"Sigh! Fine I guess you are shy as usual." Noil patted Helkep's back and started searching for a monster.
'…Am I… trying to not find out how effective that skill is on humans?' Helkep had a frown on his face when he realised that he was… trying to deceive himself yet again.
'Sigh! I can't believe it's so easy for me to deceive myself. Just how many other things are there that I deceived myself about? And why am I even deceiving myself?' Before he could even think about possible answers, Noil's shout attracted his attention.
"COME HERE! I FOUND A SHIFTER LIZARD!" Shifter lizard's were rare, due to them being so weak they were the source of food for many weak monsters on the floor.
Helkep walked over and saw the lizard shivering in fear while looking towards Noil.
The lizard that was besides him started shaking in fear as well.
The other lizard seeing the lizard besides Helkep shaking suddenly got bold and stopped shivering.
It walked towards the lizard besides Helkep and grabbed it by the tail. The lizard pulled the other lizard towards Noil and presented it like an offering.
"This lizard is such an idiot." Noil couldn't help but shake his head.
Noil kicked the wild lizard away from the lizard which he believed was Helkep's pet.
"Okay! Do your magic." Noil waved towards Helkep and moved backwards.
Helkep shook his head seeing the display the lizard had performed and started running towards it.
While running, a notification rang in his head.
«Ding! Skill 'Ground Shaker' has been activated. Your mana has ran out.»
Helkep felt some type of energy escaping from his leg and spreading in the ground.
The ground shook somewhat and the lizard whose skin was being replaced by fire suddenly stopped and died.
«Ding! You have killed a monster below your level, you have received 20 experience.»
Since the lizard died in a single attack, and there was no need for Helkep to attack with his new dagger, he had to abruptly stop his run.
"Hmm! I didn't get to see the skill clearly, use it again." Noil asked as he saw the ground shake somewhat.
"The lizard is dead and my mana is depleted." Helkep replied blankly.
"Oh! One hit kill nice. What does your skill do any ways?" Noil flashed Helkep a thumbs up and asked curiously.
"It sends a shockwave in the ground, the shockwave travels inside the ground and enters anything that's standing on the surface. It bypasses outer defence and strikes the inside. The damage done depends on the toughness of the monsters insides." It wasn't difficult for him to analyse the skill even though he had only used it twice.
"Oh! Skill bypassing outer defence, that's rare. You got lucky. Sigh! I truly shouldn't have given it you." Noil drooled on the thought off damaging his enemies while they couldn't do anything to defend.
But excluding Helkep and a few more students that could be counted in one hand. Nobody knew that it was impossible to possess mana before level 10.
Of course Noil didn't know either so he completely ignored the fact of how could Helkep use skills before level 10.
Of course innate skills were the only exception.