Chapter 13: Bad Luck
An hour later we were back at the base talking to a very upset Seraphina.
"Do you have any idea how badly that could have gone? We have had at least a dozen enemy scouts checking up on us within the last hour because of you."
I sighed, "So they know about Ava?"
She just shrugged.
"You would have to ask them."
She pointed her head to the underground prison and notified me that we had captured a few scouts.
I nodded in appreciation, and as I was about to go she stopped me.
"Hold on. My master wants to have a word with you."
I looked around in confusion wondering if he was here.
"He will be using me as a medium to talk with you. He is currently indisposed at the moment and only has a few minutes to talk."
I thought that was a bit weird, especially since I was under the impression these guys had comms and cellphones but I just shrugged and took the both of us to my room.
After sitting down on my desk I waited for her to do her weird voodoo magic.
Though she didn't really do anything for a while besides check her nails and look around in curiosity.
'I guess he's busy? That reminds me. Seraphina is a baseline elf isn't she? So she can never be a super in this lifetime. Hmmm.'
Another minute passed by in relative silence before a sudden change occurred in the air.
The candles began flickering and the room grew slightly darker. When I looked back at Seraphina her eyes glazed over before she shifted to a look of utter boredom as she stared me down.
"Lord Nethaniel I take it?"
She… or he just nodded before talking in two voices. One was Seraphina and the other was Nathaniels, "Look at you. You have gone a long way from trying to mate with horses."
My brows just twitched.
'Maybe that's why I hate horses. Because I can't confirm if that's true or not?'
"I'm assuming there is a reason for this call?" I chose to just ignore the horse statement.
Nathaniel didn't seem to mind.
He just chuckled, "I sensed something from far away. Your karma has gone up immensely. I figured it couldn't have been you. How wrong I was."
So that's the reason for the social call?
"Are you jealous?"
Seraphina/Nethaniel just scoffed before smiling suspiciously.
That look actually gave me the creeps.
"The opposite actually," I furrowed my brows, "Thomas… If I could sense it, you think others couldn't?"
I thought about it and it makes sense, but I just had to spend a few points and everything would work out just fine.
Probably.
"Let me guess. You plan to hold onto all that good karma don't you? Did it ever occur to you that that skill of yours, that Unique Skill of yours wasn't that unique? Or better yet. That it wasn't that special?"
My mouth opened and closed hoping for some smartass comment to come out but I couldn't think of anything.
Crap.
I now knew of the existence of Divine Skills and Ultimate skills seem to be the average lately yet here I am flaunting a Unique Skill like its invincible.
"Thomas. You're level 5. You're not even a mage yet. What can you do against S-rank monsters that's more than 191 levels and that's not even the peak of this world. You thought what? You could get lucky? You're a pretty flower looking to get plucked is what you are."
I put my hand over my head in frustration. Trying to get rid of another incoming headache.
Nathaniel just rolled his eyes and leaned back.
"I'm sending a carrier pigeon carrying a special artifact. Think of it like a memory card. It will download most if not all of your positive karma into it, the case it's in will hide the remaining karma. I suggest you use it."
I almost sighed in relief when I realized something.
"What do you get in exchange?"
"To use it of course."
I scoffed.
"You said-"
He interrupted me, "I said you couldn't protect yourself against the real monsters of the world. I am an S-rank Sorcerer Supreme at the 4th stage. I dare anyone to try me."
I stiffened up a little.
He's what?! Nobody told me about this. Hell, when I met him he seemed perfectly ordinary. No scary aura or anything!
Nethantiel just rolled his eyes and continued without getting into details.
"I will make sure you are properly compensated for it. Though to be fair, something like this is usually the price to pay to be my student, but I'm just a nice guy so I'll let it slide."
At least he's giving me that much…
"One last thing," He said a little more aggressively this time, "Why the hell do you have a Divine Skill and an Ultimate Skill?"
I just cringed at the thought, thinking I was in for another lecture.
So I told him the story with the evil god and how I managed to capture over 30 Ultimate Skills, 128 Unique Skills and about 3000 Normal skills as well as a few other kinds.
This time it was my time to feel cocky.
Once I gained [World Of My Creation] I was notified that I had also taken all his other skills as well. Even the really strong ones. I don't know how it happened but I'm glad it did.
Though from the look on Seraphina's face she wasn't as optimistic or cheerful as I was.
Which only made me more nervous because of how knowledgeable he was.
"Thomas… I suppose it's not surprising you don't know this and that's my fault, but in Holstein there is something called a class rank up. You are at F-rank and soon you will be E-rank. Once you hit level 20 you will be forced to make a decision.
To be a Mage or Knight. Though with help from more technological societies you could become an Esper but I would advise against it. Either way, all classes have one thing in common.
They each have a rank-up mission to progress past the next level and rank. These missions are based on the skills you have, and despite Mages and knights having something called a Sub-class, only skills are relevant to the class mission."
I gulped audibly.
Then I thought, maybe it's like in books. The harder the mission, the greater the prize right?
Nethantiel seemed to understand what I was thinking.
"Of course you can collect skills like you collect stamps too. Just enjoy having to take over 2000 missions in order to reach Level 31 (D-rank). Now that I think about it, I recall a certain someone who had to collect 139,377 brown rocks, but that's because he had a rock collecting skill. I'm sure you'll be fine."
My face paled.
[Ultimate Skill: Rocks Rock!]
[Can make a suit of armor out of any rock. The suit can only become as big as the wearer can handle.]
COUGH
Nethantiel heard me cough, tilted his head and gave me a sly smile.
Is this guy my guardian angel?