Swish!—
Like the waves from the oceans, the spear carved the air in a thunderous motion, producing a swerve.
"Hoooo..."
"Status window."
'System
Host: 'Archehon' (Lucifer in previous life)
Level: 26 Title (equipped): Monster hunter (Amateur)
Stats:
Strength: 21(+4) Speed: 24
Dexterity: 17(+4) Intelligence: 21
Stamina: 25(+4) Luck: 22
Mana: 43 Fatigue: 51
Divine power: 1
Skills:
Talent: Dell's Talent (-7.3x penalty)
Unused Stat Points: 2 '
"Invest two points into Dexterity."
Immediately after, he felt a surge of energy in his heart. It wasn't painful but rather the opposite. The warm feeling stayed for a few seconds before returning back to normal.
'
"It's good that there are facilities in place for personal training rooms. It would've been difficult to train anywhere else but here.", Archehon spoke after drinking his huge two litre bottle of water with a single hand. He had clearly gotten stronger since before entering the academy for the months he had been there.
Though, he indefinitely felt far too weak. His progress at least wasn't fulfilling enough since in his past life, when he was fifteen, he was beyond this stage in his proficiency with the dagger.
Of course, the age he started played a factor into this proficieny speed too, however,
'
It was still too low compared to the upper ends of proficiency he was getting as Lucifer in his past life. Yes, the penalty was also the biggest hurdle but he didn't want to use that as an excuse.
"If I use something like the penalty as an excuse, it is just as good as placing a giant rock in front of my legs that I can't jump over when running away. It sounds ludicrous but the only thing I should blame is nobody but myself. After all, I'm the one doing the training. Not the system or my future subordinates.", he placed the spear through the case on his back, carried similarly to a string instrument.
He twisted the door handle, and swung the door to his left so that he could exit the plain grey practice room. The chatters of the other students occupied the massive dinner hall where students chatted in the hall. After walking through many routes and the hall, Archehon arrived at his dorm room.
Both Atif and Lloyd sat on their beds, it was still afternoon after the academy day ended on a Friday. Lloyd sat against the back of his bed, reading a book which looked like a manual about Od; while Atif had his legs crossed, doing mana meditation.
Even after the day had ended, nobody could afford to stop studying after all. A profession as a hero was known to be one of the most rigorous professions, including the students.
But that didn't mean that Archehon would stay inside for the entire day, letting his wrist ache and be aiming for the 'top' student spot. None of that really mattered to him since all the content was knowledge that he could recall by a millisecond, all thanks to the battle experience and knowledge he held from being Lucifer in his past life, which is why...
"Atif.", Archehon spoke.
The strands of hair fell further down his forehead as he slowly released the mana back into the air. He looked straight back at Archehon with his usual kind demeanor. "Yes?"
"I'm going to be away this weekend."
"Where are you going?", he casually asked.
"I'm going to explore the city and hopefully shop for Magic Books."
"Oh, okay. See you on Monday then."
They both exchanged their waves while Lloyd peeked his eyes above the book.
Archehon noticed this and sneered towards Lloyd, "You too, princess."
"Who are you calling a princess? Do you want to fight?!", Lloyd slammed his book downwards and shouted at the top of his lungs as he was about to get up. But it was too late as Archehon left in time.
"Th-that bas..tard.."
* * *
The slums...
Archehon walked down the familiar environment. One may wonder why he was here but it was for a valid reason.
The area was not the same slums that he came from. The academy that he travelled to was kilometres away from the housing estate with Ariel, and pretty much a waste of time going to the slums which belonged to Xavier's father, the King of the Slums.
Indeed, that title wasn't for nothing as even his influence had reached here. However, the person in charge of this district area was not Leonardo but someone else. That was the information that needed to be found out before Archehon made his move on the chess board. His status at the moment couldn't even be called a pawn, looking at the information available at the moment.
'I need to find out information before continuing further. Let's try looking for some new subordinates for myself as part of rebuilding my faction.', he thought as he ventured out deeper towards the outskirts of the slums.
"This is unfair! That's double last months payments!"
A voice captivated his ears, and as he got closer to the conversation, he heard a greater number of responses.
Behind the alleyway, there were a few men in punk uniform, surrounding a boy. They clearly intimidated the victim. The three wore black leather jackets with spikes surrounding the collar, dark jeans, shirt and equipped themselves with baseball bats and clubs.
They all looked like the typical small time crooks. This much could easily be gauged by Archehon's eyes as this was common when he grew up as Lucifer. He very well knew who was dangerous and who wasn't a threat.
The younger boy looked to be no older than twelve. His chocolate eyes, surprisingly, were held with little fear. The basic pants and T-shirt were too little for someone of his skinny build, making a few wonder how he could stay so strong in that situation.
"Hey, look here, Chris. We don't make the rules around here, only the leader does. Pay it off or there will be no 'next time'.", the three gangsters exited the alleyway.
But once they turned around the corner,
"Who are you, bastard?", one gangster stared at Archehon with a grin.
The sound of thrashing could be heard.
"Huh?"
Pfow!—
Just a single punch was all it took. Each of them were knocked out.
The boy peeked around the corner and saw the three young men on the floor, completely passed out. "W-who are you?! I won't pay you just because you helped m-"
"Ssshh.", Archehon placed his finger over his lips. "Don't worry. I'm a hero and I've come to help you."
What the boy could see was a mask over the person's face, a joker mask to be precise.
"A.. hero? What's a hero doing in the slums? Where's the rest of your team?", the twelve year old frantically looked behind his back. He wasn't fully trusting of Archehon, seeing that he was wearing a mask and not showing his face.
"You ask too many questions. I just wanted to get some information about the slums, related to who runs this district. As long as you give me enough information, I promise you that I can take down the leader of this place.", he patted the boys shoulder.
"..."
"Are you really sure that you'll take down the leader?"
The joker, Archehon, nodded.
The boy began speaking.
* * *
One hour later...
"Ugh..."
One of the crooks began to regain consciousness. The thud felt like a couple of seconds when he fell asleep and the same portion of time was taken to open his eyes. The vision was no longer blurry and he saw a joker sitting on a wooden crate, waiting for him to stand up.
He quickly placed his bottom off of the floor and let his shoes stay on the floor. The situation began to fall in place and it hit like a truck that he was in danger.
"Aughh!!", he screamed after witnessing the two bodies filled with pools of blood next to him.
"Oh, don't worry about that. I just don't like it when people are half asleep.", the joker shrugged like the scene in front of him meant nothing to him.
"Y-you monster! What do you want??"
"Hm.. nothing much. All I need to know is info on Polin's hideout, oh! And also where he sleeps.", he listed the requirements nonchalantly in the same way children ask their parents for sweets in a snack market.
'Shit! I'll die if I don't tell him now, but at the same time, the leader will rip me to shreds.', the crook contemplated through his thoughts. It was like a weighing scale, not knowing which side was heavier and had a greater number of cons.
"Hurry up."
He felt the breathe from the joker mask and shivered. The murderous intent shrouded in mist, coating the dark crimson aura around his chest, suffocating his lungs. It felt like he needed to consciously put effort into breathing rather than to subconsciously do it.
"Okay!! Okay!!! I'll tell you everything! Please spare me!", his eyes bulged out with streams of tears, out of true fear. He had no information on the masked man and didn't know how dangerous he could truly be.
He could've been worse than his own boss and that was a risk he didn't want to take!