"Hey, Lee Jihye! That's an unfair skill" I chase after her as she tries to distance herself.
She pauses her stride for a second, "WHAT ARE YOU!" pointing her finger at me "on about unfair skill?"
A little heated, she move in close, "how about yours, hah?"
"hey, that irrelevant"
"Ah-ha Ah-ha ... irrelevant, yeah" as she brought up her hands, flexing two fingers on each hand like quotation marks. " 'sure' "
She starts walking again.
I am... was trying to learn [Ghost Walk], its skill Lee Jihye has. If I was to describe her skill in simple terms, basically it makes her presence almost undetectable.
"Skills are so unfair" I comment, felling dejected.
She looked back, face blank. Her eyes devoid of any emotion. I shiver under her gaze
just for safe measure, I decide to make just a 'little' distance between us.
little as in 10 full steps.
'how could I forget social distancing' or that's the excuse I gave myself. 'Definitely not because she looked scary all of the sudden.'
Back to the skill. It's functions like a combination of few ideas. In terms that I am familiar with, would be - my skill silent step plus extra like presence ,intent concealment and movement boost.
'Like how fucking broken is that.'
So, naturally I ask her, 'how she does it?'
she had just stared at me, like I asked her the meaning of life. After a minute she gave a flat 'I don't know'
'LIKE WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW!!! YOU USE IT!'
Anyways, it's okay. Who said people know everything.
To my request, she agreed to show me.
however...
I might sound ungrateful but... if a skill makes you concealed.... I don't think trying to sense how it works externally isn't quite wise.
And it truly wasn't effective.
but it's training my senses. 'Sure'.
'BUT I WANT TO LEARN Ghost walk!'
And so I expressed to her the issue and wanted to purpose that I sense how she does directly through physical contact. Similar to how I had done when I helped her sense mana but this time, I will just observe.
As I brought up the mana sense and was going on to how I want to implement similar idea here. her face turned bright red. I couldn't even finish talking before she gave a fast yet hard 'NO!'
I try to convince her but she stood adamant on her decision.4 A little banter later, we ended up here,
"heyy! let me just onc-"
"No!"
with a dejected heart I go away
[Demon like judge of fire finds your two's exchange cute]
[Constellation song of the sea looks at you two with gaze with maternal love]
...
We are sitting in a green zone. Shin Yoosung is sitting near me with Mochi acting as her cushion while Toto sat to the side. She seems to really likes it when I do stuff that cause my swords to glow.
Lee jihye on the other hand, is sitting a bit further away. She stared mindlessly at a wall. occasionally looking this way, but quickly looks away with her face a little red.
'What's up with her? fever?'
I quickly close up to her and put my hand on her forehead.
"hick!" she jerked back like a cat, slapping my hand off3. Lee jihye was unfocused about her surrounding so she was startled at the sudden contact. Looking at me, eyes blistering with anger "what are you doing!"
"your face..." I pause, looking at my hand she slapped away, "...I worried maybe you had a fever s-"
"No, I don't ne..." her voice became distant as my focus shifted to my hand. Lee Jihye paused see me focused on my hand, clenching and unclenching it.
"Tsk!"
My attention return to her, "forget it..." she scratched the back of her neck. "just don't touch without warning all of the sudden...."
"...sorry" I nod
as I got to where I was sitting previously she said something,
I pause, looking back at her. She looked at me, face crunched up as if uncomfortable
".... thanks for worrying"
I gave her a little smile before turning back.
I sat beside Shin yoosung
Exhale
'okay!'
Back to the glowing sword,
'hmm...this is not it'
I am experimenting to see if I can maybe make the mana at the edge rotate like a chainsaw. Maybe that help cut hard shells.
However, that's a distant matter. I can't even get anywhere near it what I have envisioned.
"haaaaaaa~"
I sheath the blade in it scabbard.
'woah...'
I stare at the palm of my hands. So rough.
'callouses shouldn't form this quickly should they?
I repeatedly make a fist before closing my eyes
Exhale
my shoulders relax
inhale
I focus on the mana within me, stagnant like like a pool. Slowly, I knag it, it knags back.
Shoulders shook because of my suppressed laugh. It was like how kids play with each other.
I slowly flood my channels with mana.
woosh
like gushing water, they all rush in the mana channels.
"ugh"
[Exclusive skill Mana circulation activates]
I wipe the blood from the side of my mouth. I had rushed too much mana at once. I almost like how you feel when you drink too much water in one gulp and air gets trapped. But here, it's mana, though there is no air or something similar, the main concept is same.
I manually command the skill to stop, before I try again.
Despite having mana circulation lv 3 and some associated knowledge the came with it, I still made such a error...
I pause to reflect.
'doesn't that me-'
Steps
I look at the approaching figure.
'Kim Dojka'
he smiled brightly as he waved at us
"hey! we meet again!"
"oh! ajhussi fro-"
"oi!" I point my blade toward him "why does your smile look the same as some back alley scammers?"
Shin Yoosung froze. With her mouth still open because of what she was about to say. Her head turned from him to me. I could almost hear a cranky sound as she turned her neck toward me. The kind you would hear when you swing open a heavy old iron door or a heavy crane turns.
The smile Kim Dojka was wearing cracked.
"ha-ha-ha" he gave a awkward laugh trying to brush it off.
Exhale
suddenly he straightens himself as his face hardened.
I get on my feet.
he opens his mouth, "I need your help"
"with what?" I lock eyes with him
"To destroy all the green zones"
Click!
"Ajhussi usually I would criticize seojin for being violent, but... do you have any idea what your saying... even if it's possible?"
like a ghost lee jihye got behind him, pointing her sword at his neck.
He shrugged, nonchalant.
"first put the blades down, let's tal-"
"You talk like your the one in control, but guess what."
We lock eyes.
"I can kill you right here"
He stared at me, eyes steeled.
Shin Yoosung stood behind me, trembling.
"talk" I signal him to speak.
"The green zones, they are decreasing day by day, there are only 13 in the whole B1"
"sure" I jerk my head, indicating him to continue
"If things continue as they are.....more people will die."
"They will die anyway" Lee Jihye trembles at the coldness of my response.
Kim Dojka becomes silent, looking at me with eyes with emotions hard to explain.1
Exhale
"Your First scenarios" I couldn't help but shift my weight "The dokkaebi had shown it to us" He turned slightly to Lee Jihye, "yours to-"
"We know.." I answer through teeth gritting against each other.
he paused, probably caught off guard by my answer.
he sighed again.
"you have killed your friends to survive.... I know you didn't-"
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU KNOW TO TALK LIKE THAT?" Lee Jihye screamed at Kim Dojka. She had lost her composer, her shivering body told that to others present,
A shiver run down Kim Dojka's spine as he is hit with killing intent from Kim Seojin. Even lee jihye felt uncomfortable despite not being the target.
Kim Dojka's eyes fell on Kim Seojin. His right eye, his white part had turned black as violet mana leaked him.
he paused
"I know what I know...."
"I know, you didn't want to do what you did....."
My breathing became uneven
"that time... you didn't have a choice..."
my fists clenched hard as my nails dug into my skin.
"...but now you do-"
I barely managed to keep my thoughts coherent, "what does their lives have to do to me?"
"You know," Kim Dojka's tone slowed down, "that boy that guided us yesterday"
My heart beat quickens, every new inhale was harder then the last.
"he looked up to you quiet a bit"
he locked eyes with me.
"he died, last night.... do you understand?" he paused. Shin Yoosung shivered, her beasts started growling a Kim Dojka. Lee Jihye's grip on her blade loosened
"he died because he was weak, what's it-"
"stop lying" he looked me in the eyes "even you don't think like that-"
"then what the fuck do you want me to do?" my voice cracked at the end. My chest felt heavy. "I can't take responsibility... I can't... just because they are weak. wha-"
"you don't need to, it's not your responsibility." he paused, walking closer to me as he gently pushed Lee Jihye's blade away. "But you can, at least this time. you choose"
Ignoring mine and lee jihye's death stares he elaborated his plan and our parts in it.
"what makes you think we will do it?" Lee Jihye asked, voice raspy.
"I don't. It's up to you."
He walk away all nonchalant
"But I know you will"
he didn't look back.
"..."
All three of us stood in silence despite Kim Dojka completely gone
I hand swing toward the wall beside me in frustration but pause right before contact.
Sigh
"...this is why prophet characters are annoying"
"he is a..." lee jihye looked at me with shocked eyes.
"unfortunately"
---
Author's note : Apologies, updates will be inconsistent the following week too. Adjusting to my classes.