"HEY! DON'T HOLD THE A-X...L- IKE TH- AT!"
"s-sorry dad...I just....I'm s-sor-"
SLAP
"BEC-AUSE....-YOU OUR SHE-...-P...RA- AW-Y N-.....WE -AN'T....EA-... BECA-...-SE..-F ...YOU, YOU -SELESS BIT-CH!"
Plop....Plop....
"Stop cry-....-ou usel-s bit-h, y-...-re the -n-.. be-...-ing to work..a..g-ys jo-...-ike hu-...-ing ani-...-als...-ut se-...-ing....how....-any mista-kes...-u..-re doing, i t-ink....your mo-..-er was ri-...ht....You do bel-
..-g to the ki-...-tch-...n.."
"B...but I hate -eing in the kit-hen wit- mo.." sniff "m-mom-my...I prefer b-ing w-with-"
"Ju-...leav-...You ca-...-n't do an-..t-thing right in....t-..his god-mn family."
"You-....kn-w what? Si-ce...-ou prefer dr-awin- th-se....d-mb s-... so much, I m-ht as w-...-l des-....-troy it-....-o...-ea-h yo-...a.....lesson.."
"PAP-...P-LEASE N-"
I suddenly woke up, beads of sweat falling down my forehead as i tried to catch my breath.
'....Another nightmare....I never thought i would keep getting these nightmares even after transmigrating here...'
I covered my face with my hands as i sighed as glanced at the small mini bed i made on my desk for the finger sized versions of me to sleep on.
I have had these odd nightmares since childhood, but i couldn't decifer what the people in my dreams were saying.
It felt like i was forgetting something.
'...Thank god they couldnt see me in this state'
I checked the time and noticed it was 6 am.
"...Well thats oddly extremely early. I guess i could start searching for the skill now"
Since i knew the 2 other souls would just get pulled towards me once they wake up, and the fact they dont have any mana so no one can see them, i could just leave the house easily without having to wake them up.
I quickly dressed up as I tried to remember where the skill was.
From what i remembered, the skill should be pretty close to this house anyways since we were in the only forest that was close to Arcania.
And the skill coincidentally is in the only forest close to the main city, so atleast I wouldnt have to tire myself too much.
And while i was in this forest, i could also train my skills and my 2 swordarts "Artists Beauty" and "Shining Starlight" with my new 2 other skills in real world combat.
"If i remember correctly...There were be a stone thats shinning slightly more brightly than the other stones no matter where the sun is..."
I looked around, using "Mana Detection" to notice where the stone is, but I didn't notice anything.
Sigh...
"How bothersome..."
I groaned in annoyance. Why couldn't i just get the skill easily? It's not even a grade 10 skill, so theres no point hiding it that much..
...30 minutes later
...FINALLY...I FINALLY found the stone.
It took around 30 minutes and a lot of fighting weak monsters, that didnt need me to use my skills at all, to find the damn stone.
From what i remembered, i had to destroy the stone or atleast move it towards a specific direction.
Thankfully i knew exactly where to move the stone since it was pretty light.
I moved the stone to exactly 336° from where i was, starting from the left and going to the right.
Suddenly i heard a tree close to me make an off sound and as I turned around, the tree right behind me suddenly opened, revealing there was a door, and as I glanced inside that tree, i noticed a trapdoor on the ground that was leading underground.
"So....If I'm correct....I should climb down here as fast as i possibly can"
I smiled softly.
"And what better way to go down as quickly as possible than to just not use the ladder unless i want to hang onto something!"
I immediately jumped inside, making sure my hands would stay close the ladder so i could atleast have something to catch if I needed to stop my fall
Although i didnt look like it, I really enjoyed situations that could give me adrenaline.
Although i was scared, the adrenaline it gave me felt amazing!
As I kept falling down, which was arguably the fastest way to go down without using a skill, I noticed how long it took.
I glanced up a bit and realized i've actually falling quite a lot.
What surprised me even more is the fact hat although i was falling down quite fast, it felt as though i was simply flying.
It almost felt as if I was..Free.
As I felt falling, i decided to keep thinking about what happens in my first novel.
'....So basically the lain characters who already got their best swordarts meet each other, become friends, hang out at malls to spend lots of money or trains with each other to become stronger to the point of being an SSS+ rank, then defeats demon king-'
Yeah there was barely any character development for anyone, no issues to solve other than kill the demon king.
No wonder people hated the novel, I just did over 100 chapters with 70% filler, 20% world building and 10% actual plot and fighting.
How boring.
But since it was my first novel, i vouldnt complain that much-
As I suddenly felt something off, i quickly grabbed the ladder and was lucky enough to have grabbed the ladder right before it ended.
"....Wait am I supposed to fall down there??"
I felt a bit anxious, i didnt feel anxious before as i atleast had some way of saving myself.
But now if i fall, there's nothing i could hold on to.
"Ugh....it's either the skill or back home..."
I didnt even waste a second as i just let go of the ladder.
A skill was more important than anything else anyways.
Thankfully, I didnt have to fall too long as 5 seconds after i let go, I immediately landed in a soft area.
If I fell anywhere else i would have died...Yikes..
I looked around calmly, it looked to be empty at first but out of caution i decided to stay quiet.
"....Mana Detection."
I muttered under my breath as I looked around for any danger.
I noticed a huge bundle of different colored mana at a certain area.
"...There's my darling skill book!"
I was in a much lighter and better mood as i followed where the mana directed me.
Slowly, i saw a skill book in the absolute darkness, and I quickly read what it was written on the cover.
/ "Weapon Transformer" Skill. Grade 7./
Yep.
That's the one.
I quickly opened it and put my hand on a random page before letting the information flow into my brain.
It still gave me a headache but atleast i had the skill now..
Before heading back home, I decided to check my stats.
,--------------------------------,
`Name: Sora Charaki
`Rank: E+
`Strenght: G-
`Stamina: D+
`Defense:G-
`Mana Capacity: C+
`Mental: D-
`Intelligence: G
`Charm: F-
---
`Swordart "Artists Beauty". Grade 2.
This swordart is based on attacking your opponents almost as if you were drawing, making them fall in a trance-like state, allowing you to kill your opponents without having them doing a single thing to the User. This swordart is only available to those who has understood the true meaning of art and its beauty.
`Swordart "Shining Starlight". Grade 3.
This swordart will attract any light sources towards you, making your body shine so brightly it could blind your opponent and give you time to attack without having your opponent be able to predict your next actions easily.
This swordart can only be used if there's any form of light around. You cannot use this swordart in complete darkness.
---
`Skill "Time Stop". Grade 1.
This skill allows the user to stop time for 5 seconds, the user is unable to move a muscle when this skill is activated but they are able to move 5x faster as soon as the skill is deactivated.
Skill "Mana detection" grade 4
The user will be able to detect any type of mana from a 15 feet radius around them, thus being able to somewhat predict your opponents actions in advance.
Skill "Artist sight" Grade 1
The user will be able to see everything in extreme detail, thus allowing the user to see a person's real identity if they are wearing a skin mask.
This skill will not function if the person is using an artefact instead of a skin mask.
Skill "Weapon Transformer" Grade 7
The user will be able to switch between any lethal weapon possible at the speed of light.
Cooldown: 10 seconds per 10 weapons switched.
Skill won't be affected by the Cooldown if the user uses less than 10 weapons with this skill.
`--------------------------------'
Nice!
Although i dont have a lethal swordart, the fact I can change my weapon to anything feels nice!
..And the fact anything can be lethal if needed to so technically i could take out a lamp at any time since it is possible to kill a person with a lamp.
Don't ask how i know.
I immediately used my skill to take out a noose so i could quickly climb up the ladder once again since i'm currently not tall enough to reach it.
..and also the fact there were multiple pièces of wood right next to the ladders that were strong enough to hold a rope in place so I could climb up.
10 minutes later and i'm now on the ladder.
I kept climbing up and up, rarely stopping to catch my breath.
'I thought my Stamina was D+, why am I getting tired so easily??'
I kept climbing up, sometimes using my "Weapon Transformer" skill to go faster by using a grapling hook.
I was so glad this skills description was so broad as if you think about it, any object could be considered a lethal weapon.
No wonder this skill was grade 7.
The only downside is the fact it has a cooldown of 10 minutes every 10 weapons I use, but as long i only use at maximum 9 weapons i think the cooldown won't affect me.
....40 minutes later
God, how long is this going to take??
I literally just got half way up and that already took 40 minutes.
I was falling earlier so i didn't know the ladder was this long but damn-
I felt my arms getting weaker and weaker as i knew i had to get back home as soon as ever.
I kept persevering, if I fell down now i knew i would actually die.
I didn't want to die like 1 week after my transmigration that's too early!
I kept climbing up, occasionally using the grappling hook to climb up faster.
It did have a height limit for absolutely no good reason so yeah i couldn't just climb up for as high as I wanted.
How stupid.
I kept climbing up, my hands getting blisters since the ladder was made of wood as I was quite literally hanging onto my life.
The higher i got, the higher chance of death I had.
And i did not want to die again.
I experienced death once already and that was a terrifying experience.
I just kept climbing up and up non stop, using the grappling hook from time to time to get up faster.
The darkness underneath me made me feel even more anxious, almost like it was an odd ability to make others feel immense fear.
Or was it my fear of death and falling causing this fear? I don't know..
As I kept climbing up, i noticed that the area around me got darker and darker. But the weirdest part were that there were two different lights colored Blue and Red..
..Specifically like the colors of my eyes in this world-
Wait can my eyes shine in the darkness? I Can't see anything though.
I never wrote anything about eyes being able to glow in the dark though..
Is this something only i have access to?
If so, then that means i atleast got some sort of perk from being the author of this world.
This information could be useful for me.
I kept climbing up, I could feel my hands bleeding slightly as the wooden ladder felt extremely old, so I could feel small pieces of wood stab my hands in different areas.
It was painful but i endured it.
....20 minutes later.
Finally, i could see the light.
My hands were in terrible condition but i kept climbing as I knew that once i let go i might as well die.
And a few minutes later i finally got to the surface.
My hair was a mess, my hands were bleeding and i my clothes were extremely dirty.
Good thing i atleast wore a hoodie and pants or else I would have been fucked.
I left the trapdoor and decided to head back home, I needed to heal my hand somehow but i didn't have any healing potions on me at the moment so i could only suffer.
This was...exhausting to say the least.