The door shut behind Marcus and Marie. Marcus's hands immediately moved to his new jacket, pulling it off and throwing it onto a nearby coat rack with a groan.
He was tired. Unbelievably so. He just wanted to go sit down and crash. "Fuck me…" he said under his breath.
Now that he was no longer in public, behind the walls of his new home, it was quiet. Actually quiet. He didn't hear the heartbeats of everyone around him, no more debilitating sounds, just him and Marie.
He could sense Johnny and Ana in the home, but since they were quiet too… probably sleeping.
"So, M. Ready to get some well-deserved rest—"
His words were interrupted as Marie grabbed Marcus's breastplate and pushed him up against the door. Her nose pressed against his, her purple eyes shining brightly in the dark, the pink hearts of her pupils shaking like a beating heart. He could feel the thump of her chest as her armor pressed against his own.
"Marcus. We have eight hours. Alone. And you think we're just gonna have a 'rest'?! Do you know how long I've been waiting for this to happen…?" Her voice had a crazed undertone. But Marcus didn't feel afraid as the larger woman stared down at him like prey… He loved it.
"Then what did you have in mind?" he asked, tilting his head and acting dumb.
She growled, slowly pulling his breastplate up off his chest and over his head. Once it was off, she grabbed his wrists and placed them on her hips. "We're gonna fuck!"
"Woah! Woah! Couldn't have used a better word for it?" he joked, hands gripping at her hips and bringing her even closer, a teasing smirk plastered on his face.
"You… We'll see how you feel in a second!" she yelled, picking up Marcus like a sack of potatoes and walking him towards the steps up to their bedroom.
"We shall see!" he chuckled, and their night started off with a bang. Literally.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATIONS HAVE BEEN SILENCED.]
[User has fully rested.]
Marcus sighed in relief, four hours having gone by since both he and Marie had started their "fun".
He sat on the edge of the bed, looking out the patio window at Johnny and Annie playing around in the backyard.
It was peaceful. "Phew…" But Marcus had rested enough. He still had things to do.
Looking to the corner of his room, he eyed both his father's blade and his new scimitar.
"Speak."
It took you long enough, Marcus. Have fun with Marie?
Marcus groaned, shaking his head as he looked at the blade shake and reverberate as it… spoke? He didn't know why he could hear the voices of swords, but this was the voice he always heard in the back of his head. It'd always been there. Maybe that's why his Resonation rate was so close to being complete.
That is correct, Marcus. Soon, you'll unlock everything within me. But that's for later… What's up?
"What… is this ability? Why can we talk? How does it work? What's happening to me?" Marcus immediately bombarded the blade with questions—
"You're absorbing the memories, power, and even the personality traits of every single user of that… disgusting blade. But also me!" Suddenly, Redmane's Scimitar spoke as well, its hum less apparent than his father's blade.
"So… what does that entail?" Marcus questioned, looking down at his calloused hands, hoping he wasn't going to transform into some beast.
Your system may be delayed… You should've leveled up a few times by now, with how much you've been constantly Resonating with both me and that… thing.
Marcus raised an eyebrow in confusion. Opening up his system, he looked it over… His status seemed to be unchanged. But as he did, his father's blade gasped.
You… I see the problem now.
"Is it something bad…?" he asked.
You have an Administrator's System.
[Synthesizing…]
[Update failed… 33 times.]
[Retrying.]
Marcus looked on in even more confusion as window after window of failed update attempts flooded his vision. Looking past all the windows, his eyes locked onto the two blades.
"What the fuck do I do to fix this?" he asked, the scimitar staying silent.
His father's blade took a second to think before it finally replied.
It should be fixed now.
"What did you do?" Marcus was worried… What was truly wrong with the blade in front of him? Why did it sound like himself speaking…? This was all so surreal.
[Retrying…]
[Successful. Update beginning.]
Give it a couple minutes.
Marcus waited, watching as all the windows slowly disappeared before nothing was in his vision. He didn't even feel the presence of his system for a few seconds.
Suddenly, a new window appeared before his vision after a few minutes of silence, a feminine voice ringing through his ears…
[Welcome ADMINISTRATOR #3 to the…]
[Warning, User is mortal… Unavailable information being replaced with usable information.]
[Welcome ADMINISTRATOR #3 to the Earth Administration System.]
There we go. It's a bit finicky because you're human, but… Enjoy.
"What?! Sword! What did you—" Marcus nearly yelled for the blade to speak again, but after hearing Marie twist and turn in the bed, he shut his mouth… Lucky bastard.
Looking at his new system screen, he saw more than a few things of interest to him.
"Whatever… I guess I'll look around."
[Earth System Admin: Marcus Koa]
[Main Menu]
[Status]
[Inventory]
[Skills]
[Classes]
[Shop (!)]
[Party (!)]
[Admin Commands]
[Help]
"Simple enough, I guess… A couple of the options have an exclamation point by them…" Rubbing his chin, he decided to check out his status first. Maybe the question marks on his stat screen would be gone by now…
[Administrator MARCUS KOA]
[Level 3 Porter, Level 10 Breaker Swordsman, Level 2 Jumper]
[TITLE: Squad Leader (B-Rank), Admin (EX-Rank)]
[ROLE: Main DPS, Administrative Power]
[HP: 1115/1115]
[STR: 46]
[CON: 34 (+15)]
[AGI: 35]
[INT: 3]
[WIS: 7]
[MAG: -6]
[CHA: 18]
[LDR: 24] (Granted by Jacket)
[DISPLACEMENT: 5]
[Unallocated Stat Points: 105]
[CLASS ABILITIES & SKILLS: Lift, Carry, Dash, Sword Resonation, Bag Packing (Lv. 4), JUMP (Lv. 3)]
Marcus's jaw almost hit the floor… He was effectively level fifteen already? Even though his Porter class barely even counted, this was great… And he finally had an answer to why he could teleport. He was something called a Jumper… Whatever the fuck that was.
"So many stat points…" He had a lot of stat points to allocate. Rubbing his chin, he thought extremely hard about what to put them into. Especially with that new stat at the bottom being revealed…
"This is a long shot, but… System, what is Displacement?" he asked, awaiting an answer…
[DISPLACEMENT: The stat is not upgradeable. Granted by the Marked By Destiny affliction, Displacement determines how connected one is to the time stream in their world. A five is near negligible.]
"All that did was give me more fucking questions…" Sighing, Marcus decided to just punch in those new stats without worrying too much about that last one.
"I should upgrade my strength to about… 55." He pressed the screen a couple times, inputting that number first.
"Then my Agility goes up to 50 as well… Hmm… Should probably cap out my Constitution up to 60 too… I'm going to be investigating a ton now so… I feel like I should be smarter. So… Let's put some into my Intelligence as well."
And with that, Marcus upgraded his stats to what he deemed was usable.
[Administrator MARCUS KOA]
[Level 3 Porter, Level 10 Breaker Swordsman, Level 2 Jumper]
[TITLE: Squad Leader (B-Rank), Admin (EX-Rank)]
[ROLE: Main DPS, Administrative Power]
[HP: 1375/1375]
[STR: 55]
[CON: 60 (+15)]
[AGI: 50]
[INT: 30]
[WIS: 35]
[MAG: -6]
[CHA: 18]
[LDR: 24] (Granted by Jacket)
[DISPLACEMENT: 5]
[Unallocated Stat Points: 0]
[CLASS ABILITIES & SKILLS: Lift, Carry, Dash, Sword Resonation, Bag Packing (Lv. 4), JUMP (Lv. 3)]
Marcus felt his muscles bulge slightly, his bones growing stronger to account for his stronger arms and legs… He even felt himself get slightly taller after adding in his new stats.
But what really weirded him out was when knowledge that wasn't his flooded into his brain… Thirty Intelligence was on the higher side for most humans who weren't mages… Clearing his throat, he grabbed the covers and began to pull them over his body—
[New Skills Earned!]
"What now…?" he groaned, sitting back up and looking at the system window with tired eyes. He still needed rest… All these new revelations tired him out.
[Break The Blade: Class Skill]
[The User breaks a disposable blade over their knee or using their environment. For thirty seconds, the sword fragments float in the air until used, by either being shot at an enemy or area, or coating another blade in jagged spikes. Each fragment has its own durability and duration value.]
[DMG: Variable, based off INT and AGI]
[Cooldown: 2 Minutes]
"H-How is this useful…?" Marcus asked himself, dismissing the first window and looking over the second.
[Break The Chains: Class Skill, Combination]
[The user attacks in three ways: a slash to the left, a slash to the right, and a slash down the middle or from the ground, dealing massive single-target damage. Can be FREESTYLED to have different effects.]
[DMG: Variable, based off AGI and Strength, as well as the weapon(s) used.]
[Cooldown: 5 Seconds]
The second skill wasn't as bad… It could actually be a bit more useful than the first one. But he'd need time to test it all out. Yawning softly, he felt Marie's hand brush against his back, calling for him to come back to bed…
Looking at the clock, he sighed softly. Four more hours of rest… Good.
Lying back down next to Marie and pulling the covers over his body, he slowly closed his eyes and went back to sleep.
[User is fully rested.]
Marcus yawned softly as he woke up later in the night, the moon shining through his windows as he slowly sat up to stretch.
Once his eyes adjusted, he looked to his left and saw Marie standing by the window, wearing all of her gear, that massive tower shield strapped to her back. The gold almost blinded him…
"Ouch… Marie. You're always up earlier than me. Ready for that dungeon?" he asked, slipping out of bed and opening up his inventory screen to equip all of his clothes.
"Yes. I have a feeling we'll be fighting someone in this dungeon…" she said, turning to Marcus with a steeled expression on her face.
"Yeah. We'll be fighting monsters. Unless you mean…" The two didn't even finish their thought before he nodded, equipping his boots last.
"Ready?"
She nodded, the two of them finally leaving their bedroom and heading to their new workplace for the day, or possibly even days: The Jewel Mine.
[Travel in Progress. One-hour drive logged in the travel log…]
The jewels around the dungeon's entrance were blindingly bright.
Marcus stood in front of the volatile Gate, the mana threatening to whip both him and the rest of his squad. Marie sat nearby, closer to the entrance than anyone else, polishing her shield as the rest of the squad arrived.
"Boss, we're here." Geraldine made her presence known, a small smile on her face and her earmuffs hanging around her neck. "Well, I'm here. The other two are running late."
"They say why?" Marcus normally wouldn't care, but he had to be a leader now… He couldn't just let everything slide.
"Uhh…" Before Geraldine could finish her answer, Vanessa and Marshall appeared, both of them making their way to the group from a nearby restaurant.
Marshall was still stuffing his face with food, particularly pizza today. More food than usual as well. Both of them walked up to the group, Vanessa grinning ear to ear.
"You're late," Marcus said, already getting into the mindset of the leader he needed to be, glaring at the both of them with… fake anger.
It seemed to be enough for Vanessa to deflate, her eyes avoiding his own, staring at the ground. "Ahem… Sorry, Marcus. Marshall needed a refill."
"Yes, I dfid… I neemdf frood," Marshall concurred, still stuffing his mouth as he spoke. His eyes looked into Marcus's own, begging for her not to be punished for his own doings.
Good. You have the respect aspect down, boy.
"Shut up," Marcus thought as he looked at the two with that same glare… until he smiled.
"It's fine. You admitted to it and told me why. We're all good." He patted their shoulders before turning to Marie and nodding.
"So. Does anyone need a recap on our mission here before Tenpo-Ippo decides to arrive? They're even later than these two," Marcus asked.
"No, sir," Geraldine replied fast, sighing in relief as she could finally put back on her earmuffs, the music getting louder for a split second as she did.
"No, Marcus," Marie said, throwing away the towel she used to polish her shield before standing up and strapping it to her arm.
"Uhh… nah." Vanessa shook her head as she patted at the skirt of her new dress, making sure it was proper and prim.
"Yesh." Marshall broke the mold, admitting he did need a recap…
Marcus groaned, rubbing his face quickly before looking back to Marshall with annoyance. "Fine. Let's get this over with."
He dug into his pocket, pulling out his phone. A small hologram appeared from the camera, showing the same scenes as the ones that were shown to them inside the bunker.
Clearing his throat, Marcus quickly started explaining, "So, it's pretty simple. We'll be going inside the Jewel Mine with one simple mission: to figure out who killed the previous Epsilon Squad. We'll be acting as if we're trying to get the usuals along the way. Killing monsters and gathering jewels." He paused, allowing Marshall to take some time to digest the information.
After a minute, Marcus made one last statement. "We're supposed to avoid combat with other humans as much as possible. But if the guy who committed this crime wanted to fight…"
"We're going to wreck him," Marie interrupted as she finally walked over to the rest of the group, a mean grimace on her face, her pupils turning into those red swords yet again…
Marshall turned around to see just what they were looking at.
Behind them, the Tenpo-Ippo squad finally arrived.
There had to be at least fifty different Hunters in their squad. Completely balanced. People who seemed to be healers, a few rangers, tons of tanks. What was really strange was that they all wore classic Hunter gear. Medieval-level armors, helmets, the whole shebang. Their armor was all a mix of gold with black accessories. Quite the contrast.
Their leader walked in front of them, their entire body kitted out in the golden armor, a strange, demonic-looking helmet in their left hand. Their armor had so much embroidery on it that, if not for Marcus's system confirming it was high-leveled gear, he would have assumed it was purely ornamental.
Long black hair that framed a handsome but scarred face, piercing red eyes, and… a pentagram necklace around their neck. Were these guys even Japanese?
[JAGER has cast DETECT on the user.]
[Brief summary of status screen is revealed to the caster.]
"What?" Marcus said out loud, looking at the notification in front of his face with confusion. What was happening? This was the first time he'd heard of such an ability.
Marcus's fear then suddenly disappeared as the next system window snapped him back to reality—
[JAGER doesn't have permission to view hidden messages in system windows.]
[Even more simplistic status is shown. Do not worry, Administrator.]
"This thing rocks, now that most of the gamebreaking bugs are gone…" he thought, watching as this… "Jager" guy scoffed at what he saw and immediately swiped at the air, dismissing his own window.
Once done peeking, the black-haired fiend made his way over to the group. Once there, he put on that corporate smile and held out his hand for a handshake.
"Hello! My name is Jager Toshio. I'm the squad leader for our dungeon raid squad at Tenpo-Ippo! Who might you be?" he asked, eyes closed lightly to make himself look more innocent… But Marcus didn't believe it.
"You know who I am. You cast Detect on me… But I guess I should introduce myself officially. My name is Marcus Koa. I'm the squad leader of Squad Epsilon for the Suhojadeul Guild." He grabbed Jager's hand and gave it a shake, but he didn't stop at just that… He gave his hand a nice little squeeze.
But Marcus's hand barely moved, his eyes widening as Jager squeezed him back… The ground beneath both of them began to crack slightly from their bout of strength. "You are quite strong. But—"
"Stop." Marshall placed his hand against both of theirs, his eyes looking into theirs. "We're here to cooperate on a dungeon raid. Stop dick measuring," he stated, looking at Marcus specifically and then nodding his head for Marcus to look past Jager.
The rest of his squad had their hands on their weapons, as if Marcus was the dangerous one.
He sighed, slipping his hand out of Jager's grip with a quick-fire, hand-only teleport… His eyes widened. He didn't even know he could do that until he just… tried.
Jager seemed surprised as well.
"Ahem. Sorry about that. You ready to raid the dungeon?" Marcus asked, Jager only nodding in response.
He turned around, putting on his helmet and walking back to his squad. "Your group enters first. We'll be inside about forty minutes after you. Protocol." He didn't give Marcus time to respond.
Marcus sighed, watching him walk away with anger on his face. He didn't say anything else, turning around and walking past his squad and toward the Gate of the Jewel Mine dungeon.
"Guess we're getting this party started," Marshall said, grinning as he stuffed the last slice of pizza into his mouth and followed after Marcus.
Geraldine and Marie didn't say a word either, steeling themselves and following next.
Vanessa stuck her tongue out at the Tenpo-Ippo Hunters before running after Marcus and the rest of her squad.
Entering the Gate, the mana swirled around their bodies, teleporting them to the Jewel Mine dungeon.
[Bodies found…]
But what Marcus and the crew weren't expecting was to immediately step in the blood and viscera of… someone.
Marcus looked down in confusion, his eyes widening as he saw exactly what he needed to see.
"The dungeon's Hunter Association Contractor…?" And as he said this—
"I think you mean to say all of them," Marie corrected, pointing further ahead. In front of the entire squad were the bodies of every single Hunter Association Agent said to be on site for this particular dungeon.
"Huh. Seems like we have more to investigate for the next forty minutes."
STAT SNAPSHOT
Name: Marcus Koa
Classes: Level 3 Porter, Level 10 Breaker Swordsman, Level 2 Jumper
Titles: Squad Leader (B-Rank), Admin (EX-Rank)
Role: Main DPS, Administrative Power
Health (HP): 1375 / 1375
[ATTRIBUTES]
Strength (STR): 55
Constitution (CON): 60 (+15)
Agility (AGI): 50
Intelligence (INT): 30
Wisdom (WIS): 35
Magic (MAG): -6
Charisma (CHA): 18
Leadership (LDR): 24 (Granted by Jacket)
Displacement: 5 (Static)
Unallocated Stat Points: 0
[CLASS ABILITIES & SKILLS]
Lift, Carry, Dash [Upgraded], Sword Resonation, Bag Packing (Lv. 4), JUMP (Lv. 3), Break The Blade [Class Skill] (NEW), Break The Chains [Class Skill, Combination] (NEW)
[EQUIPPED GEAR]
Weapon: REDACTED Blade, Redmane's Scimitar
Chest: Legionnaire's Breastplate (Rare) | Effect: +70 ARMOR
Outerwear: Suhojadeul Squad Leader Jacket (Rare) | Effect: Grants LDR stat
Accessory: Duffel Bag (Unranked) | Effect: Ownership transferred. Holds 15x blades.
[ACTIVE QUESTS]
Investigate the Untimely Deaths of Squad Epsilon (D-Rank)