"Charlie, do you see anything? This is the room right?" Questioned a man in a black mask as he watched his partner peer through a dusty window.
"Steven, he waved a gold coin around like it was nothing and walked right into room 101 in front of everyone. This is absolutely the room." Charlie replied through a black mask of his own.
"Did you ask Darz to assist? There were five of them, we need some men." Steven said as he tried to peer through the window.
"I did. He's rounding up a few lads and they will meet us here shortly. Then we will be able to give our boys a nice big Kris welcome!" Charlie said as a loud cracking sound was heard a few yards behind them. The next moment, Charlie could see nothing and could no longer move as he was encased in rock armor that looked like a thief statue.
"So, there's going to be a second wave?" Pebble scratched his head as he walked forward from the dark alleyway. He activated his Rock Throw Support Augment on the thief in hopes that he'd be trapped like Bard. The result was a success.
"Who are you! What did you do to my friend?" Steven shouted at Pebble.
"Hi, I'm Pebble and I'm struggling here. Do you want to chat?"
"Why would I talk with you? You killed my friend!" Steven grabbed his dagger from his sheath and held it defensively.
"Please don't do that. Your friend's not dead." Pebble slumped his shoulders, "Look, I got a Compulsory Task to eliminate the threat." Pebble shrugged, "I'm going to be more honest with you than I've been with my buddies, okay?"
Steven's eyes went wide, "Why?"
"Because, I'm not normally a liar, but this world has changed me very suddenly and I've been having a hard time coping." Pebble summoned his axe.
"Oh my f*ck, you're a Hero." Steven fell to his knees. No normal warrior could summon a weapon out of the aether.
"Yes, but I'm also a Double Challenger, and that means I have a few gods who watch everything I do." Pebble said.
"Are you going to kill me?" Steven was trying to hold back tears and snot from falling out of his face.
"I'd honestly prefer not to, you and I are going to test something out. You're going to fully surrender and we will see if that counts as eliminating the threat." Pebble nodded seriously at Steven.
"Uh, what if it doesn't" Steven was now also struggling to not to wet himself.
"You and I both don't want that. Let's just try our luck for now. If I free your friend, would he be on board with this?" Pebble asked.
"Charlie should know better, right Charlie?"
"Mmmmhmmmm!" The stone armored thief said.
Pebble unsummoned the armor and Charlie immediately yelled, "Get him!" and started charging at him. Pebble rolled his eyes and quickly kicked the ground, retrapping the man in another set of stone armor.
"You have five minutes to convince your friend, I really don…" Pebble was trying to plead his case to Steven, but a bolt shot out from behind and landed in Pebble's right shoulder.
<43/50 HP>
Steven's eyes went wide, but he quickly readied his knife and began to run at Pebble. He knew that if he could get away with one desperate strike, he could end this right here. He screamed and sprinted as fast as he could.
"Don't make me do this." Pebble begged, but Steven did not listen and proceeded to shove the dagger with every bit of strength that he had right into Pebble's chest. Pebble was truly surprised since the man seemed sensible just moments before.
<8/50 HP>
A familiar voice returned.
Steven was utterly terrified as Pebble did not flinch from either the bolt to his shoulder or the knife to his chest.
Pebble looked at Steven, "Sorry, I'm not letting that happen." Pebble swung his axe horizontally. With his new Axe Mastery skill, the weapon practically swung itself. Pebble didn't even feel resistance when the blade cut through the man's bones.
Steven was confused, he didn't understand why Pebble was now sideways. Or why he could now see his own body. 'Where's my head?' were the last thoughts of the decapitated thief, before he succumbed to his wounds and accepted the cold embrace of death.
<+100 CP>
<+250 Exp>
<18/50 HP>
The thief with the crossbow yelled after seeing the death of his friend, "No, Steven! What are you!" He tried to reload the crossbow but after the sight he just witnessed, he was too shaken to succeed.
Pebble ignored, "Just another lesson is hesitation. I've really learned nothing." Pebble muttered to himself. He then swung the axe horizontally again at the stone armored thief. Swinging the weapon felt so natural to Pebble that he once again barely noticed any resistance while cutting the statue in half. The top half of the statue fell to the ground and crumbled into bloody sand, revealing Charlie's torso. The legs were held in place by the stone armor and blood began shooting in the air like a fountain. Charlie looked at his Pebble in horror and attempted to scream, but was unable to find his voice. He looked back at his remaining friend in the ally and croaked, with sand falling out of his mouth, before bleeding out.
<+100 CP>
<+250 Exp>
<28/50 HP>
<29/50 HP>
The sight made Pebble grin involuntarily, 'This is bad, I can feel the Blood Luster Trait kicking in!' Pebble thought. He turned around and saw that the crossbow thief was trying to run. He stomped the ground and activated his trusty Rock Throw skill. A rock shot up from the ground, as usual, and Pebble hit it with a fierce jab, sending the rock into the crossbowman's lower spine. The man screamed and fell to the ground, his spine broke where the rock impacted and he was now paralyzed below the waist.
"I need to kill you with as little blood as possible! Sorry for this!" Pebble said as he walked over to the man and stepped on his neck. The man squealed and then went silent as he was unable to pass air through his throat. He looked up in panic at Pebble before his consciousness faded away.
<+100 CP>
<+250 Exp>
<39/50 HP>
Pebble could feel his muscles spazzing in anticipation. He knew he was just a couple drops of blood away from triggering Blood Luster and he desperately did not want that to happen, especially in the middle of a town. Pebble spoke out loud, "I know there's more of you. If you wish to die with your friends. Come now and let's end this. If you choose to live, leave. It's that simple." Pebble waited but heard no response, so he continued, "I won't even loot your friends. Feel free to grab their bodies when I'm gone."
Pebble began walking away, "Oh, and please don't wake up my friends!"
Pebble noticed a Dwarf watching him from the main road. He approached the Dwarf, "Hi, Dink." He said wearily.
"I'd like to apologize, mister. I told you your team was safe in that room. They don't normally try the windows." Dink replied in an equivalent tone.
Pebble did not fully believe Dink at the moment, but he wasn't in the mood for more confrontation, "It worked out in the end, didn't it?"
"Indeed it did, lad. Why didn't you tell me you were a Hero? Is everyone in your party a Hero?" Dink inquired.
"Would it have made a difference? This world is new to us and it seems like we are just going to have to tough through it regardless. I don't see a benefit and throwing around the word Hero just because it was given to me. I'm a Knight too, but that currently means nothing. I don't believe in free titles. I'll start calling myself a Hero when I feel like one." Pebble decided to continue walking towards the entrance of Pigtail Inn and Dink sped past him to hold the door.
"After you, and again, I'm sincerely sorry about this. I can see that you're weary of me, but I'm truly not with them. I think they were attracted by the coin you flashed." Dink shook his head, "At the time I thought you intended to cause trouble. Now that I know you were just summoned to this world, I feel like a complete assh*le."
Pebble paused, he was relieved since he liked Dink before this, "Hey, Dink." Pebble locked eyes with the Dwarf and flexed his right bicep.
Dink's face lit up and he replied with a weaker flex before saying, "Thank you." He shooed Pebble back to his room and scuttered back behind the counter to continue his shift.
Pebble pushed open the door to their room and found everyone asleep with the lone exception of Puffy who stared at him with wide eyes. The dusty window had a small clean section that seemed to have just been wiped, Pebble assumed Puffy watched his fight.
"Heya, Puffy. How's it hanging?" Pebble asked nonchalantly while making his way to his bed.
"Ah, you know, a little to the left," Puffy replied jokingly but got seriously, "Stop the BS, what kind of support class can do what you just did?" Puffy was quiet enough to not wake up the room, but Pebble decided to walk over to the couch to minimize any chance of the crew overhearing this.
"So, you did see." Pebble said quietly.
"Was I not supposed to? What the f*ck was that? You chopped through a dude encased in stone like you were cutting through butter." Puffy looked at Pebble with incredulous eyes, "Why are you playing as support when you could be tanking for your friends?"
"Listen, Puffy. I don't want to freak them out, but I'm not like them. They are Heroes, I'm a Challenger. I'm learning that those are very different things." Pebble said with a sense of pain in his voice.
"What do you mean?" Puffy was confused. This whole situation was not adding up in his mind, Pebble could increase their safety tenfold if he swapped roles with Phil.
"First and foremost, I'd like to say that my class is actually listed as a support. It's called The Battery. Have you heard of it?" Pebble questions.
"No, dork. Unique means you're the only person to ever have this class. It would be impossible for me to have heard of it." Puffy replied.
"Oh, really? I didn't know that. So there's no hope in finding a build guide or anything in history about how people leveled up with this skill tree?" Pebble was sad by the news, but he did not wait for a response, "Whatever, that's not what we were talking about. What happened when you were first summoned here?"
"Well, I walked in for my appointment in California…" Puffy was recounting his story but Pebble interrupted him.
"Cali? I thought you said you were Japanese?"
"I am Japanese, my parents moved to America when I was in Highschool and brought me with them." Puffy shook his head, "At the time, I still felt Japanese. It took me 30 something years before I even started accepting that I was a Gnome and this is my culture now."
"Fair enough. So, you go in for your appointment and…" Pebble let the last word linger as he upped the pitch of his inflection.
"And that's that. There was a pretty girl behind the counter, I created the cute little Gnome you see today, blacked out, and woke up short as f*ck. Just like you, except you're hot and shredded." Puffy with extra umph.
"That's where you're wrong. I never blacked out. I felt my skin ripping. I felt my bones get grinded into dust. I felt everything get reconstituted into some sort of jelly before being put into soda can and spun at f*ck-all speeds. After that, I'm told that I'm now a pseudo puppet for these gods and they can give me tasks that I have to comply with." Pebble cleared the air with Puffy.
Puffy was silent for a moment, "Why are you choosing to hide this from your friends?"
Pebble was caught off guard for a moment, "Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. A part of me was worried that it was due to the low charisma or intelligence points, but another part of me feels like if they knew, they'd try to help me with my god given tasks. What if one of them gets hurt or something while doing my tasks? When we used to play games, I used to have to carry them and boost their levels in everything we'd play. There's a bit more to it as well. I've learned that if i get hurt or see a lot of blood, I can lose control."
Puffy shook his head, "Look brother, I won't out your spot here." Puffy gave Pebble a fist bump, "But, I do think you're underestimating your friends. From what I've seen, no one really seems to be a rookie or a threat to our safety. At first, I was worried about Phil, but he jumped into action without hesitation when we were ambushed. If I were you, I'd let the group know." Puffy looked at Pebble for a moment before continuing, "What do you mean by lose control?"
"Do you remember the enrage modes that some bosses had in MMOs?." Pebble asked and Puffy nodded, "Kind of like that, but I haven't figured out what happens around friends and I don't want to."
"Ah, okay. That might be a bit problematic." Puffy held his chin and thought.
"I appreciate being able to talk about this with you. I feel a huge weight off my chest." Pebble said.
"Well, you shouldn't. You haven't come clean to the group yet, so keep that weight where it belongs, you liar." Puffy joked, "I'm happy to be your confidant, buddy. Get some sleep."
Pebble nodded and returned to his bed, "Goodnight, bro. I'm glad you joined the team."
"Yeah, yeah. Night night." Puffy replied before rolling over and closing his eyes.
<1230 CP>
<1400/2400 Exp to level 7>