《God of Systems: Maker of Heroes and Villains》


 Chapter 1: The Letter

    A man wearing a worn suit got out of a public bus and walked at the side of the road while his eyes were glued onto his phone''s screen. There was a huge wall of text and at the bottom of the screen, were four words in bold.


    ''Thank you for reading!''


    A few seconds passed and the man stuffed his phone into his pocket as he let out a loud sigh.


    "After 14 years.... this webnovel finally ended. I don''t really know how to feel about it though." he muttered as he took a left and walked on the familiar empty road.


    It was a normal book for everyone else, but for him? For him, it was something different. The book, even though it had more than 8000 chapters, wasn''t really famous. But for him, it was like this book was written for him and him alone.


    The actions of the main character were the ones that he himself would have done if he were in simr situations. Even when it came to the type of women he preferred, the food he liked and even the way he talked with both friends and strangers were very simr.


    ''It really is a pity that it ended...'' he thought as he sighed again and nced at a small apartment with three floors. Multiple cracks and green algae at certain ces showed that the building was either extremely old, or very badly maintained.


    He silently walked in and climbed up the stairs until he reached the third floor, only to see tworge cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other and sitting in front of his door.


    He walked closer and noticed an envelope, which he opened without any hesitation. Inside was a letter along with a small thank you card. He put the card in his pocket before reading the letter.


    Dear Loyal Reader,


    I''m writing this letter to show my appreciation for the support you have provided to me from the beginning to the end. Most readers read a few chapters and drop the book, but you were the only one who read the chapters every single day and leftments for me to read, be it constructive criticism, or just random memes and jokes.


    Now to the darker talks... based on the minor indirect conversations we had, I''m hoping that you won''t hate me for dropping this on you all of a sudden. Fourteen years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Apparently it was gic and well... luckily for me, I beat it after a year.


    This was also the time when I started writing the book and back then, I had a lot of readers. Maybe I should be thanking my luck for that too, but after I beat my cancer, I still continued to write. The story slightly took a turn and maybe even you noticed it. After all, switching from a fast paced story to a slow paced one is hard to not notice.


    Anyways, a lot of readers actually left because of this and it actually made me feel like rushing the end. Just when I was about to make that decision, I was once again diagnosed with cancer and this was also breast cancer, but of a different kind.


    Then I remembered the main reason I started writing this webnovel. It was for myself so that I could pass some time, but somehow, I began to care more about what the readers wanted and ignored my own thoughts.


    Oops I''m writing too much crap, but please bear with me. Let''s speed things up. So yeah, I continued writing and many more readers left until only one remained...


    It was you, mister fwydchicken. Unfortunately I don''t really know your real name... and I wish I did. Unfortunately, it''ll be toote by the time you receive this letter, which you probably will after two weeks of me writing this.


    Well... Tada! I''ll be dead by then. I wasn''t able to beat cancer the second time and they''ll perform on me in three days. Chances of survival is less than 1 percent... but that''s just them trying to give me some hope.


    Now that the sad and sappy stuff is done, let me tell you about the two boxes. All of my money, valuables and everything that belonged to me is in there. I hope that it''ll help you in at least one way.


    Thank you for being there for someone who had no friends, nor family.


    Your happily dead author


    Red Snow


    Um... or Emma nkton


    After reading the letter, he stood silently as he continued to stare at the piece of paper. He was someone who got emotional pretty easilypared to the others, but this time, he simply stood in ce, not doing anything.


    He silently grabbed his phone from his pocket and opened the webnovel app before clicking on thetest and thest chapter that he had just read.


    He then tapped on thement button and typed a few words.


    Fwydchicken: Thank you for the chapter


    There was no response.


    ''It''s not like she''ll be staring at her phone waiting for my message.'' he thought to himself, but there was something inside him that pushed him to type more.


    Fwydchicken: Do you have any ns on writing another novel?


    Again, no response.


    He felt his vision go a little blurry, but he went back to the index and checked thements on the previous chapters.


    4 8 15 27 28


    None of these chapters had anyments other than his, but the 29th chapter from thest chapter, did.


    ''14 days... 28 chapters. No responses...''


    For four minutes, he stood in ce silently as tears rolled down his cheeks. He didn''t know the author personally and he also didn''t talk to her a lot online. Even then, he couldn''t stop himself from feeling like he was drowning. Even breathing was hard.


    He went back to thest chapter and began typing once again.


    Fwydchicken: My name is Keith. A divorced 28 year old guy who lost almost everything.

 Chapter 2: Transmigration

    After sending the message, he took a deep breath and sighed before grabbing the box that was on top. He exerted some of his strength and lifted it up, only to find his vision go blurry. He blinked a few times, trying to get back his clear vision, only to fail.


    His legs gave in and he fell to the floor along with the box, his body unresponsive as he stared at the ceiling until the blurry vision turnedpletely ck.


    Unbeknownst to him, the phone in his pocket vibrated a few times as it emitted a powerful light beam which shot through the thinyer of cloth. It brightened the entire area with the powerful glow for a few seconds before subsiding.


    Once the light was gone, only Keith remained. Or at least, his body. The boxes were nowhere to be seen. The most surprising thing was that no one came to check out the source of the powerful beam of light.


    ******


    Keith opened his eyes, only to find himself in an unfamiliar ce. He was in a small room that barely had any furniture. The entire ce was dark, but he would still guess what he was looking at based on the slight shapes that his eyes were able to see.


    There was a regr sized bed, a table with a few things on top of it and then there was a chair in front of this table. Other that these three items, there really was nothing in the room.


    After looking around, he ced his hand on the floor and pushed himself up. As he lifted his hand from the floor, he frowned as he felt like he had touched something wet.


    Since he couldn''t see, he brought his hand to his nose and sniffed.


    ''Blood....''


    The frown on his face deepened as he hurriedly stood up and this time, he felt like his whole back was wet. Not even a second passed since he realised this when he felt a stinging pain on his abdomen. He brought his hand to the ce where he felt the pain and found something sticking out from his body.


    ''.... is this a knife?'' he asked himself as he looked down at the thing he was touching at this moment. It felt like a knife''s handle, but he knew that if he pulled it out, he would die from blood gushing out of the wound.


    The knife was currently stopping the blood from flowing out, so even though he wanted to pull the knife out, he stopped himself from doing so.


    ''Just what in the hell is going on...'' he thought as he looked around, hoping to find a light switch.


    Before he could move towards the walls, he heard soundsing from outside the room. The sound of multiple footsteps entered his ears and that was when he heard voices.


    "Officer, this one. I think this is the ce from where I heard the screams." a mature feminine voice said.


    Not knowing what was going on, Keith lied back on the floor and closed his eyes, feigning ignorance and acting like he was unconscious.


    Lying back on a pool of blood was not really pleasant, but he didn''t know what else he could do as there was a possibility of him being framed.


    "We understand, miss. Can you please stand back for a bit." another voice said, this time masculine, but not too deep.


    Soon after, Keith heard a loud bang on the door. From the sound, he could make a guess that there were at least two or three people trying to kick the door open.


    Three secondster, he heard another bang and the process repeated. On the eighth round of kicks, he heard the door open with a loud bang, but kept his eyes closed and regted his breathing.


    "Stabbed in the stomach area." he heard a man say and a secondter, he felt someone grab his arm and ce two finger on his wrist.


    "There''s a pulse. Hurry and carry him to the hospital nearby! Quick!"


    "Yes sir!" another person said and Keith felt himself being lifted up. The pain in his abdominal area shot up and he was unable to keep acting anymore.


    He opened his eyes and screamed, "Aaarghh! It hurts!!"


    "He''s awake. It''s a good thing, but carry him properly you morons!" the one who seemed to be their leader said and the ones who were carrying Keith slowed down and adjusted their positions so that they could prioritisefort while not sacrificing speed.


    While he was being carried by the four men, he looked around and noticed that he was not in his neighbourhood. Infact, he could tell just by looking at the buildings that he was not in his country either.


    ''Did someone smuggle me for my organs or something?'' he thought to himself, but then he saw a statue of a schrly man in front of arge building.


    ''This... ''


    He couldn''t believe what he was seeing. Even though it was night and the only reliable source of light being the moonlight, he could still make out the general shape and features of the statue as there were multiple oilmps ced around it.


    The statue''s appearance was eerily simr to the description of the god of medicine from the book he had been reading for almost a decade.


    ''The god of medicine, Galen. Did I actually transmigrate? Just what is going on...''


    "Ugh!"


    Another burst of pain assaulted him, but this time, it was just his head. He felt like his skull was being split open with a hammer and the brain was getting squeezed by a giant hand. Unable to bear the pain, he passed out while his body twitched uncontrobly.


    The four people who were carrying him, panicked and increased their speed, not caring about hisfort anymore.


    "Hey! Is any doctor free? We have an emergency situation and someone is about to die!"


    A few seconds after they screamed, a short man ran out of a room and nced at Keith before looking at the policemen, "Stab wound. Follow me."

 Chapter 3: Expensive Hospital fees

    Keith slowly opened his eyes and found himself in a small room, lying on a hard bed. The confusion he had before fainting was no more, and he stared at the ceiling with a calm expression on his face.


    Or at least, that was what it would look like to everyone else other than Keith.


    He stared at therge gacha wheel in front of him and then nced at the red spin button that was below the wheel. He clicked the button mentally and watched the wheel spin for an entire minute.


    There were a lot of sections on the pizza-like gacha wheel along with a small blue dot on the top, but since there were too many of these "sections", Keith didn''t bother counting them. Instead, with just a nce, he could tell that around 60% of the sections were white.


    30% were yellow and around 10% were orange. There were only 3 red sections. All of this was just an approximate estimation based on a simple nce.


    A minuteter, the wheel slowed down and finally stopped at a white section.


    There wasn''t anything written on the wheel, but Keith felt new information pop up in his head.


    ''A revenge system...''


    Thest time he passed out from severe head ache, he received memories of the body he was currently upying and along with that, he had also learned about his so called system administrator abilities.


    The gacha wheel in front of him could grant him a random system which he could then give to others and share a portion of the system user''s abilities.


    ''Unfortunately, I can''t use the systems on myself.'' he thought as he looked at the small white translucent orb.


    This was the system that he had just received, but he was in no hurry to use it.


    ''I''ll have to find someone who''spatible with this. But before that... '' he thought to himself, sighing slightly, ''To think that I''m in the world that I loved so much.... but practically, it''s safer to stay on earth. There''s literal super humans and supernatural beings roaming in the regr streets like normal people.


    If my luck is bad, then I wouldn''t even know how I died. There''s also my new family... and my new past. Too much to digest.''


    While he preferred a life on earth, he also didn''t mind living here as there really was no one waiting for him back at home. He had no kids, his parents were dead and his wife had divorced him. His two close friends were the only ones whom he missed dearly.


    ''Going back to a peaceful world with a miserable life... or a potentially dangerous one where I can start anew. A tough choice, but I can''t really pick the first option anyways.'' he thought as he made up his mind to live a new life, and just as he did, he heard the door of the room creak as it opened.


    A short middle aged man paused as he saw Keith turn his head to look at him and then smiled.


    "You''re finally awake, mister Keith Zenister. Well, it''s been more than three days and you''re currently safe since I patched you up pretty well. Do you remember the person who stabbed you? The police wants to know, so it''ll be nice if you do remember."


    Keith looked at the man and shook his head, "Sorry, it was too dark for me to see his face."


    It was a lie. He did remember how the person who stabbed him looked, but he had no ns on turning the man in. In fact, the person who stabbed him was a friend of his elder brother who had joined a gang almost a year ago.


    His name was Norn, and the reason he hade to Keith was so that he could ask for where his brother was. And the reason for this was that the gang that Keith''s brother had joined, had gone for Norn''s sister.


    It was a ssic revenge story where Keith unfortunately acted aggressive when he saw Norn holding a knife and got stabbed by mistake.


    ''The old me was... kind of a pessimistic person wasn''t he?'' he asked himself before he thought of Norn, his first target for his system.


    The short guy nodded, not caring even a least bit about Keith''s answer, "That''s a pity. Anyways, you were taken care of for three days and we saved you from potential death. The total cost for all of this will be 30 Braks."


    Keith squinted his eyes as he calcted the proper amount.


    The empire that he was currently in, had three different currency denominations. It was akin to bronze, silver and gold in simpler words. Braks were the same as bronze coins, with lowest purchasing power. Zens were simr to silver coins, but Zens were distributed in paper form just like back on earth. It was the same with the strongest currency type which was equivalent to a gold coin; the Chrons.


    1 Zen was same as 20 Braks, and 1 Chron was the same as 50 Zens.


    "So.... 1 zen and 10 braks?" Keith asked, the expression on his face darkening.


    The short man gave him an amicable smile and nodded, "Yes sir, as soon as you pay the fees for your treatment and stay, you''re free to leave."


    Based on the memories he had received after fainting, he knew that he only had a total of 3 zens in savings. With one brak, he could buy a kilo of wheat flour and this much was more than enough for one person to fill his stomach for at least three days.


    He thought about it for a few seconds and sighed, "Okay, but my money is back at home. I''ll have to go back and bring it to you."


    "Sure, I''ll send someone with you. Or will it be fine if Ie with you instead?"


    "Doesn''t matter." Keith replied as he sat up from his bed, not wanting to talk to the man any longer.

 Chapter 4: Revenge System Delivered

    Keith walked back to his house and walked straight to his bed. He then lifted the mattress and grabbed the three notes that he had hidden for a long time.


    From the three notes, he took out two and gave them to the short man who was standing at the door and watched him take out a fat wallet. From the wallet, he took out onerge brownish coin and gave it to Keith.


    "Thank you, sir Keith. I''ll be on my way now." the man said and left the ce. Keith stared at the whitish grey note and the brown coin before sighing. He put both of them into his pocket and walked towards his table.


    He pulled open one of the drawers and grabbed a small leather pouch that had a thin rope tied around the opening. He loosened the rope and looked inside to see different sized coins. The smallest was the size of a bottle cap and had the number 1 written on it.


    The medium sized one was slightlyrger and had the number 5 written on it andstly, there was thergest one which had the number 10 written on it. This was also the same one that Keith received from the short man a few seconds ago.


    There were a total of 7 small coins, 3 medium sized ones and finally, tworge coins including the one that Keith had gotten recently. As for the 1 Zen note, he put it back under his mattress along with two of therger Brak coins.


    He then grabbed a 1 brak coin and snapped his fingers, making a silvery white orb appear out of thin air. With a simple mentalmand, the orb flew into the coin.


    Keith then put this coin in his pocket before tossing the other coins into the leather pouch and tied it to his waist. His current clothes had been washed by the workers at the hospital, but the small hole near his stomach couldn''t be hidden.


    He took off his shirt and turned towards the mirror to take a look at himself.


    A man with ck hair, dark brown eyes and anky build stared back at him. He was pretty tall even though he looked thin. There were barely any muscles on him, and his skin was pale.


    ''Looks like the only thing that the old Keith did, was hole himself in his room and study all day. Though... it''s a pity that he wasn''t able to get good grades in the final exams.


    Keith currently was 22 years old, and had received the results of thew enforcement exam that he had taken a month ago. Through this exam, a person could get three different types of jobs.


    One was awyer certification, second was a position in the police department and finally, the lowest of the three jobs, street patroller.


    ''Based on the results I got... the only option for me is thest one. But if I use connections... then maybe I can try for the police department. Either that, or I''ll have to follow my brother''s footsteps and join a random gang.


    I don''t have the money to be a merchant and nor do I have the license to sell things. Oh well... bing a police officer is safer than joining a gang, so I guess I''ll have to go meet my brother inw as soon as possible.


    But before that, let''s sow the seed of revenge.''


    After making his ns, he walked out of his house and locked the door before heading towards a familiar restobar; a ce that served as both a restaurant and a bar.


    The reason he was going here was because he had seen Norn serving people while he was heading back home from the hospital. It was the ce where Norn worked to make money for his family.


    As for why he was working like nothing had happened? Keith didn''t really know, but seeing that Norn was going through his life like always, it felt like going about his daily life was a better choicepared to disappearing from the city.


    ''If he did disappear after stabbing me, then it would be easy for the cops to pin the me on him even without evidence and once that happens, it''ll be hard for him to life a normal life, let alone search for his sister.''


    He looked at the restobar''s sign and walked towards it. There was an open area outside with multiple tables and then there was ce for people to sit inside too.


    Keith had a n in his mind as he walked inside and the moment he did, he saw Norn who was walking towards one of the tables while holding a mug of beer.


    Since Norn hadn''t noticed him, he silently walked towards him and when Norn turned around after serving the drinks, Keith smiled and waved at him like nothing had happened.


    "Brother Norn, I need some help from you like always." he said as he took out the small coin from his pocket and extended his hand, "I just need some bread so that I can have some food while I travel to my sister''s house."


    Norn stood silently as he stared at him for a few seconds before nodding, "Sure...." he said hesitantly before adding, "I heard that you got stabbed... are you alright?"


    "Oh that." Keith said, "Honestly, I don''t really remember what happened. The only thing I remember is the pain in my abdomen and my head. I woke up in a hospital and those bastards looted my savings!" he said with a pained expression on his face as he ced the coin on Norn''s open palm.


    Norn nodded as he listened and said, "As long as you''re safe, it''s good. Alright, I''ll go bring you the bread you need..."


    He paused for a second before looking at Keith straight in his eyes, "Do you know where your brother currently is?"

 Chapter 5: Unlikable Landlord; Good Bye

    "Yeah, him and his gang''s main base is located in the same district where my sister lives so maybe you''ll find him there. Unfortunately, he''s cut off all contact with me and my sister." Keith said when he heard Norn''s question.


    "Is that so... okay, take a seat and wait for me. I''lle with you since I have something urgent to do and it involves your brother''s gang." Norn said and when he saw Keith''s curious expression, he added, "Don''t ask me about the details, I won''t tell you anything."


    Keith lifted his arms in a surrender position, showing that he won''t ask him anything. He watched Norn walk into the kitchens and looked around.


    This was called Earth, but it was a bit too different for it to be the same as the Earth from where Keith originally came from. Around 20% of the poption underwent something called the "Awakening" between the ages of 3 to 20.


    People got various diverse abilities when they awakened, but all of them were categorised into four types.


    Physical, Elemental, Summoning and Mystic. Physical awakeners would have different forms of physical enhancements like overall strength, vision enhancement, smell, elongation of limbs and what not. Some could even turn invisible.


    Elemental was basically just getting the powers of elements in various forms. Mostmon ones are being able to shoot things from their bodies and the other is to turn their body parts into an element. Like a rock body or ming body.


    Summoning includes the summoning of various things and creatures like swords, spears, bricks, dogs, snakes and even goris. A few of them can summon divine artifacts and supernatural creatures like three headed dogs or staff wielding monkeys.


    Mystic Awakeners were the rarest and also the most diverse types known to mankind. In a sense, everything that didn''t fall into the first three categories would be thrown into this one. Some of them had really weak abilities such as predicting the weather, urately sensing the direction of the winds or being able to listen to the voices of the dead.


    There were also extremely over powered abilities such as future sight, fate alteration, human puppetry and multiple others.


    After a few minutes of waiting, Keith saw Norn walk out of the kitchen with arge bamboo basket filled to the top with bread loafs. Each one was the size of an adult human''s arm.


    "When do you n on leaving and uh... in which district is your sister by the way? After her marriage, I''ve never seen here here so I don''t really know much about her anymore."


    Keith nodded, "Auberg district... but do keep in mind that she''s been married for the past two years and that her husband is a sheriff. I know that you liked her so-"


    Before he could finish his sentence, Norn waved his hands, dismissing his words as he interrupted him, "Don''t worry, I have much more important things to do that to go behind a married woman. Don''t worry too much."


    "If you say so." Keith said as he shrugged before adding, "I''ll leave tomorrow, but if you''re in a hurry, then feel free to leave before me."


    Norn nodded, "Okay, I''ll do that then."


    After saying that, he left the ce while Keith stood silently while watching Norn walk further and further away.


    ''Set condition. Activate system the moment he reaches Auberg district.'' he gave out a mentalmand and saw a slight glow appear around Norn''s body before it dissipated.


    ''Preparations are done... but now I''ll have to focus on my own life.''


    He walked out of the restobar and headed back home. There wasn''t much to do, but he preferred to take his time and go through things thoroughly as this was a life he wasn''t too familiar with. He had received the memories, but he knew that he had no special feelings for his close ones like his sister.


    Once he got back home, he nced at the small calendar that was hung up on the wall and walked straight to his table. While he grabbed the important files that he would need for job hunting, his thoughts wandered.


    ''It''s year 4664 right now... The novel began at the year 4660, which means that 4 years have already passed. rk should currently be in the Morose Kingdom and since I''m in the neighbouring Kazak empire, it''ll take a long time for me to even get a glimpse of his face.


    I''ll focus on gaining personal strength using my system administrator powers first and when the war between the neighbouring kingdoms start, I''ll most probably be able to keep my life intact. If things go well, I should be able to reap some benefits too, like a nobility title.''


    He grabbed his result sheet, his birth certificate and finally, his citizenship certificate. These three were the most useful ones that he had and the others were just contract papers for the rent of his house, admission papers, which were of no use after his graduations and various other unimportant things.


    From under his bed, he pulled out a small suitcase and safely put the three important papers inside along with the money that was under his mattress. Then, he grabbed his fountain pens, ink bottles and two books that he owned before putting those inside the suitcase too.


    Books were extremely pricey, so people from poor backgrounds like Keith, would rent or lease books before returning them.


    There was still quite a lot of space inside, so he stuffed in the two extra pairs of clothes that he had and closed the suitcase.


    "Everything packed and ready to go. There''s no need to talk to thendlord about leaving as long as I leave the contract here." he muttered as he read the contents of the contract.


    There was only one simple condition which said that he could live in this ce as long as he paid the weekly rent.


    ''That guy is too rude, so I don''t really want to talk to him.'' he thought as he made up his mind and got onto his bed, nning to get a good night''s sleep before departing to Auberg District.

 Chapter 6: Mule Carriage

    The next day, Keith grabbed his things and swiftly left the ce after taking the lock that was used to lock the door along with the keys. They were bought by him and not thendlord, so he took them with him.


    "Locks are not cheap." he muttered as he climbed down the wooden stairs and hurried towards the main road closest to him. As he walked on the gravel roads while looking around, he felt like he had travelled back in time to the 1800''s.


    There were no cars or bikes. Instead, he saw a few stray dogs sleeping soundly in the middle of the roads. He ignored them and continued walking until he reached the main road. He looked up and saw that the sky was turning lighter.


    ''The sun is rising... I''m right on time.'' he thought as he walked along the main road and after a few minutes, he saw a bunch of carriages lined up.


    There were Oxen, buffaloes, donkeys, mules and horses silently standing while strapped to their respective carriages.


    Different animals cost different prices and served different purposes too.


    Oxen and buffaloes were used for carrying heavy loads, in short, they were equivalent to mini trucks back on Earth.


    Donkeys could be used for both heavy loads or regr travelling, but there was a limit to how much they could pull.


    Mules were the same as Donkeys, but cost more and didn''t provide goods carrying services. In short, they were like regr cabs.


    Horses on the other hand, were faster and only used to bring people from one ce to another. They did the same thing as mules, but were faster.


    Keith looked around and after a while, walked towards a man who was petting one of his two mules.


    "I''d like to go to Auberg district. How much will you charge?"


    The man thought about it for a second before answering, "It''s pretty far from here. The journey will take around two days in total, so ten braks."


    Keith nodded, "Sure. I''m the only one travelling, so maybe it''ll be better for me to wait for someone who want''s to go to Auberg and share the carriage with them."


    The carriage driver nodded, "As you wish, but since we''ll have to wait for someone else, I''ll have to increase to cost to 12 braks in total. If you split the money, you''ll still have to pay only 6 brakspared to 10."


    "Okay." Keith said as he shrugged. The first reason to share a carriage was of course, to save money.


    And the second reason was that he simply wanted to go to Auberg a littlete.


    After settling the deal with the carriage driver, he got into the carriage and closed his eyes.


    With a mentalmand, a system screen appeared in front of him.


    Revenge System


    User: Norn Sambucha


    Capabilities: Passively gathers information from the surroundings and creates quests to achieve a sessful revenge.


    System Tax: Copy of Norn''s awakened ability or physical money.


    Keith looked at the system tax and was pleasantly surprised. System Tax was basically what he would receive from Norn for giving him the revenge system. He could either choose money, or Norn''s ability which he didn''t really know about.


    ''He did a good job at keeping it a secret... it''s either that, or even he doesn''t know that he''s an awakened.'' he thought as he clicked on the system tax option and saw a new screen pop up in front of him.


    [Please choose the tax you wish to ept.]


    Without any hesitation, he picked the awakened ability and the moment he did, he felt a slight shock in his entire body. His head was the only thing the hurt, while the rest of his body seemed normal.


    As the information about Norn''s awakened ability entered his mind, he let out a slight smile.


    ''Danger Instinct huh.... it''s simr to spidey sense in a way.'' he thought as he looked around, only to feel no difference.


    ''A passive ability. Oh well, this thing could potentially save my life multiple times so it''s way better than getting an ability to summon weapons or offensive animals. Survivability should always be my first priority.''


    Keith''s personal ability was to give systems to others, but through this, he could slowly amass multiple abilities and grow stronger in various areas. When he was stuffed with information of his past and his powers, he had learned a few important things when it came to the usage of the gacha wheel and the systems.


    First was the limit to the number of people who could simultaneously use the systems and his current limit was one person. As he''d give systems to more and more people, this limit would slowly increase.


    White systems were short term systems like the revenge system that he had recently received, and would disappear once the user was done with their tasks like aplishing their desire for revenge. In this scenario, he could receive the tax right at the start.


    Yellow systems were around the same level as white systems when it came to the "features" or "help" that they provided to their users, but there was a slight difference between them. While white systems were short term, the yellow ones were long term and could stay with the user until they died or until Keith let them have the system.


    In this scenario, he could receive monthly taxes and these taxes could be in any form, such as money, physical strength, awakened abilities or a copy of a random item that is rted to the user.


    Next was the Orange systems and these were the same as White systems, but gave out overpowered abilities to the users.


    Red on the other hand, was the same as Yellow systems. Long term systems, but just like orange, extremely overpowered.


    As he thought about Norn and his system abilities, he silently made up his mind.


    ''If I get the chance, I''ll actively help out Norn with his goals. The sooner hepletes his revenge, the sooner I''ll be able to use the gacha wheel again.''

 Chapter 7: Leveraging Connections

    He didn''t have to wait for long, as a well dressed man climbed into the carriage and sat beside Keith silently without saying anything. Since the man didn''t wish to speak, Keith didn''t initiate a conversation either and sat silently for the entire journey.


    There was also the fact that the little finger of his left hand had begun to twitch the moment the man got into the carriage. This was the first sign that danger sense gave him, which also meant that the danger level was minimal.


    Not wanting to take any risks, he decided to not talk unless talked to.


    It took him a total of two days to get to Auberg district and once the carriage reached it''s destination, Keith paid the carriage driver and silently walked away.


    ''Weird guy.'' hemented inwardly as he thought of the man who sat beside him for two whole days without saying a word.


    He shook off his thoughts and used his memories to follow the route to his sister''s house, which wasn''t too far away from where he currently was. A few left and right turns, and he found himself standing in front of a well maintained house.


    From what he knew, it was a duplex house and had a total of three bedrooms. One on the first floor and two bedrooms on the second.


    There wasn''t any space in front of the house and nor was there any gate. The door directly opened to the street, like most of the houses in the Kazak Empire. The people barely had any frontyars orwns, but instead, they usually had pretty spacious backyards.


    ''Though, only the ones who have enough money to buy such properties, have the luxury of having empty space behind their homes.'' he thought as he knocked the door.


    A few secondster, he heard the locking mechanism on the door clicking. Unlike his previously rented room, this door had a built in lock.


    As the door slowly opened, he saw a familiar face and this brought a smile to his face even though he didn''t intend to smile.


    The young woman in front of him was his sister who was two years older than him. Compared to Keith who was extremely thin and malnutritioned, she looked pretty healthy. She had the same ck hair and dark brown eyes as Keith, but was shorter than him by half a foot.


    Before Keith could say anything, she frowned as she gave him a worried look, "Keith... did you... get into a gang like your brother? If that is the case, then you should not be here! You know that my husband is a sheriff right?"


    "Reba, you should calm down." Keith replied as he shook his head with a wry smile on his face, "I''m just here for some help. You know, like leveraging my connections."


    "Oh." Reba said, pausing for a second as she took a good look at her brother before nodding, "Come inside then, what are you waiting for? What help do you want though? If it''s money, then I should be able to talk to Adam about it."


    "Talk about what?"


    Hearing this not-so-familiar voice, Keith turned to look at a moderately tall man who stood at around 5 foot 7 inches. He had dirty blonde hair and an above average face, the focal point being his moustache which he had apparently been growing for more than a decade.


    "Oh, brother Adam. I didn''t know you were here." Keith said, his tone polite. He then gave Adam a slight nod before continuing, "It''s nothing. I don''t need money, but it is rted to money. I''m just trying to look for better job opportunities."


    Saying that, he opened his suitcase and grabbed his exam certificate before giving it to Adam, who silently took it and grinned.


    "Oh, so you want a job that''s better than a street patroller and you came to me because I''m a shriff." Adam said as he twirled his moustache, acting wise.


    Keith nodded, "Yes. And just like you, I''m an awakened. Unfortunately, I realised this a bit toote and because of that, I''m unregistered."


    Adam nced at Keith and went back to the exam certificate before nodding, "Follow me. Oh, and just leave your suitcase here. We''re going to get you registered and with that, I''ll have the power to appoint you under me."


    Grinning, Keith followed behind Adam and as they walked along the rtively empty streets, he spoke, "What''s the n though? Are we registering under the Empire''s direct order, or are we going to one of the churches?"


    "That''s your call." Adam said as he turned to look up at Keith who was taller than him, "Registering under the Empire will give you more benefitspared to the churches. Like, monthly bonuses, first priority for promotions, tax exemptions and multiple other things. If your awakened ability is really good, then the Empire might even give you freend and a house.


    As for churches, they have their own set of benefits. They aren''t rted or attached to any country, kingdom or empire, so they''re not too effected by wars as the churches remain untouched even if an entire country is turned upside down.


    Apart from that, there is a chance of you being able to go to other kingdoms as a part of your duty. The pay isn''t as high as the Empire, but you''ll have a lot more freedom. Also, unlike random bonuses, the churches give extra rewards based on your performance and let me tell you! Those extra rewards are too damn good!"


    He patted his slightly bulging belly and grinned, "Unfortunately, myzy ass won''t be cut out for churches. Picking the Empire a few years ago was a good choice for me, but things are different when ites to different people. I want you to make your own decision."


    Keith nodded and said nothing. He already knew everything about the churches. Their strengths and weaknesses wereid bare in front of him for more than a decade, so here was no way he would ever forget about them, especially his favorite church.

 Chapter 8: A New Job

    There were more than ten gods, but when it came to churches, there were only five. The ones who did not have churches were the ones who did not have to depend on the actions of humans to maintain their godhood.


    An example of this would be the Goddess of Life. It didn''t matter what the humans did, as she got her divinity through the "life". The birth and growth of humans, nts and various creatures on this gave her nourishment and she also never interfered in the matters of the humans.


    Not unless there was mass destruction involved.


    Then there were the gods with churches, the ones who depended on the actions of humans. The gods and goddesses of Money, War, Medicine, Art and Protection.


    There were more churches, but these five were the major ones that had presence in every single country, kingdom and empire. The strongest among these five, was the Golden Church of the God of Money as it had the highest number of believers, warriors, priests and servants.


    "I guess I''ll pick the Church of Protection. I have no interest in the others." Keith said as he looked at his brother inw.


    He was in-fact, very interested in the Golden Church of the God of Money, but he already knew their true nature so he stayed away from them.


    ''The upper echelon of the money church are too evil. They act all good on the outside, but in reality they do some of the most despicable things ever known to mankind.''


    Adam who was walking beside Keith, nodded as he took a right turn and continued to walk, "Protection ey? I was pretty sure that you''d choose money."


    "Well... wealth is fleeting. It''s like water, moving from one person to another just like how water moves from one ce to another. I feel like working for the Goddess of Protection will give me a better sense of aplishmentpared to getting a lot of money and spending it on random things." he said as he made something up on the spot.


    The two of them continued to talk until they reached the Church of Protection. Just from the outside, Keith could tell that the description in the novel did not do it justice.


    There was a huge open space at the front and there were some people walking around in full metal armor. The gate was open, so Keith walked inside with Adam right beside him. The main building could be summarised to be built in a U formation from a top view.


    He walked towards the left and followed the paved path until he reached the main door, which was extremelyrge, but was open. Theyout of the church was pretty simplistic and even the paint on the walls was in white.


    "Follow me." Adam whispered as he took a right the moment he entered the church''s main hall. There wasn''t any door, but Keith saw him stop in front of an armoured guard.


    He pointed at Keith and said, "Sir, I''m here with my brother inw to get him a job. Would you be kind enough to tell us where to go? He''s an awakener who wishes to serve the Goddess of Protection."


    ".... Awakener. I have no say in this matter, but sure, I''ll tell you where to go so you can get to the one in charge."


    The two of them listened to the directions he gave and headed off. The one who was in charge of this particr church was a priest and to get registered as an awakener under the church, Keith had to go to him.


    Keith and Adam walked along the lengthy corridors before stopping in front of arger than normal door way. There were two doors on either sides, but unlike the entrance, they were closed.


    Adam took a step forward and knocked.


    "Please enter." they heard a male voice and pushed the door open before walking inside.


    "Father, my brother inw here is an unregistered awakened and would like to join the church." he said as he ced Keith''s results sheet on the table in front of the priest before continuing, "He''s studiedw and justice, so I feel like he''ll be a good asset for the church."


    The priest lifted up his hand, his palm facing Adam. The moment Adam saw this, he fell silent.


    "You, wait outside." the priest said as he pointed at Adam and then turned to look at Keith, "As for you, we''ll talk one on one."


    Keith nodded and watched Adam leave and once he did, the priest spoke up once again, "What''s your ability?"


    "Danger sense. It''s like the sixth sense, but I can predict danger instinctually. I don''t really know if it is physical or mystic ability."


    The priest nodded when he heard his answer, "It''s a useful ability. As for it''s ssification, it doesn''t really matter. Hmm... danger sense huh? It''ll be really useful in certain situations and it''s a good thing that you picked the goddess of protection. Since you''re here to join us, I''m assuming that you won''t have any problem with me assigning you a job?"


    "...." Keith went silent for a few seconds before nodding, "I''m hoping that I''ll be given a job where I can perform well."


    "Sure, don''t worry about those small matters. Giving you a job where you can use your ability to the fullest is something we want too, not just you. Anyways, talking about the job, you''ll be working as a detective. The cases we get will mostly involve one party that needs protection from the unknown.


    It would be a regr person, or an awakener and as a detective, it''ll be your job to find out who this attacker could be and the protection of the client will also fall under your jurisdiction. Don''t worry too much about it. After all, you won''t be forced to fight people directly. You''ll be a part of the team and it''ll be your job to warn them if you sense danger.


    Now then, if you understood whatever I''ve said until now, we can move on to discussing your weekly pay."

 Chapter 9: Value of Danger Sense

    The next day, early in the morning.


    Keith stopped in front of a small inn in the Auberg district. The inn had no name, but was still pretty famous due to the low prices and tasty food. He walked inside and saw a room filled with tables and chairs.


    Beside the counter, was a door which had the sign "closed" hung up on it. Not caring about the sign, he walked towards the door and opened it.


    The woman who was silently wiping the empty beer bottles nced at the ring on his finger and continued to do her work without interfering.


    He walked inside and saw that the room was pretty spacious. Exactly opposite to the door and currently in front of him, was arge bookshelf filled with books. With all of them having leather covers.


    There was no space to his right, but a few meters to his left, was a decently sized table and behind it was argefy chair on which a middle aged man sat.


    To the right of the table, and beside the bookshelf, was arge couch where twodies were sitting. To the left of the table, was a rocking chair and sitting on it was another middle aged man, but unlike the first one, his hair was greying at certain areas.


    All four of them nced at his hand and noticed a familiar ring. The twodies and the man on the rocking chair turned to look at their leader, who was the head detective.


    "New blood in the team, huh? I did get a letter talking about you, but... you''re too... how do I say this? Not really fit for this job. Can you even lift a book without shaking?" he asked as he grabbed a thick book that was on his table and tossed it towards Keith, who hurriedly caught it.


    It wasn''t really hard to hold it, but seeing that no one said anything, he continued to hold it while staring at the head detective. It soon turned into a staring contest, which Keith lost after a minute as his hands really began to shake under the weight of the book.


    "Well, the result is better than what I expected but you really should work on eating well. We have no use for weak people in this department you know?"


    Keith nodded before sighing, "I apologise, but there really was nothing I could do about my food when I was struggling financially."


    It was far from the truth as the old Keith simply gave too much importance to moneypared to his own well being. This in turn led him to eat only one meal a day. This was also the reason why he had quite a bit of savings.


    "Understandable. My name is Brandon and I''m this department''s head detective. All the cases will go through me and you''re not allowed to take up cases without my permission. Also, no matter what happens, you must never move alone during your job. Always have at least one person with you at all times."


    "I understand, Sir Brandon."


    Brandon nodded, satisfied with Keith''s professionalism even though he wasn''t too happy with Keith''s current physique.


    "Good. Now that we have a total of five people, I can take some rest from personally acting on cases with you guys. Anyways, what was your weekly sry again? It was written in the letter somewhere but I didn''t really pay any attention to it."


    "Two Zens per week, sir." Keith replied, his eyes betraying his expectations for the money that he was supposed to get.


    The moment the words left his mouth, he heard a yelp from the right and turned to see the younger one of the twodies staring at him in shock.


    "Wha.. I mean how is your pay higher than mine? I joined one year before you and even after my pay raise, I only get one Zen and fifteen Braks each week! This is discrimination!" sheined before turning to re at the head detective.


    Brandon simply shrugged, "You''re paid based on the value your abilities provide to the department, not by your damn genders. ra is a clear example of that, don''t you think so?"


    The guy sitting on the rocking chair quipped in, "Right, I''m the oldest here but both ra and Brandon make more money than me hahahaha. Experience and loyalty matters, but our abilities are the ones that put a value on our heads."


    Hearing the oldest of the team speak, the girl didn''t really know what to say or do other than pout while looking away.


    Keith on the other hand, had a question that popped up due to the interaction just now. He turned to look at the guy on his left, who was sitting on the rocking chair and asked.


    "Sir, does that mean that my ability is valuable?"


    "Of course, and you''re currently joining us as a trainee. Amelia there joined directly as an employee. Your danger sense is focused on survival and that alone gives it a lot of importance, but after reading the details of your power, we realised that it could be used to verify our clients'' ims.


    Once you be an official employee, which will happen at around one month from now if your performance is good, you''ll be the one with the highest pay among us as your weekly pay will be doubled.


    We''re not counting the special bonuses we''ll get forpleting the requests from our clients, but if we include that, you''ll be getting the highest share among all of us here."


    Keith nodded as the gears in his brain turned.


    His danger sense ability worked in a simple way. He could sense danger from certain people and if he did sense danger from someone, it would mean two things.


    One was that the person themselves had intention of harming him and the second scenario was that the person would be involved in something dangerous, which would then indirectly harm him if he stayed too close to them or got involved with them.


    Due to this, his danger sense could be used to confirm whether the clients really had someone who wanted to harm them. Then, it could also be used as a alerting mechanism which would boost survivability if he stayed close to the clients.


    As danger got close to them, Keith would feel it and could alert his teammates who would then take action.

 Chapter 10: Restricted Weapon

    Keith was someone who had read the novel, and since he had read about a lot of extremely broken awakened abilities, he had never really given much importance to his danger sense other than treat it like a sign that''ll help him survive.


    "If that''s the case, then I''ll do my best to fulfill my role in the team, sir." Keith said respectfully before adding, "As for the bonuses... I''m fine with dividing it equally."


    In reality, he didn''t really wish to let go of his extra bonuses, but if he wished to maintain a good rtionship with his colleagues, this could potentially be the best way to earn their goodwill. The more they liked him, the better they would treat him.


    And as he had expected, the expressions on their faces changed while the girl called Amelia jumped up from the couch excitedly.


    "I like this new guy hehehe." she said as she looked at the others and grinned.


    Keith looked at her and smiled.


    She had a lot of simrities to the Kazak Empire''s natives; the signature ck hair tied up in a neat pony tail. Her hair was smooth and straight and she had dark brown eyes.


    Amelia could be considered tall for ady as she stood at around 5 foot 7 inches just like Keith''s brother inw, Adam. Just from one look, Keith could tell that she had a well toned body.


    Her figure could be considered perfect when it came to Kazak Empire''s beauty standards as men preferred t chested and t assed women for some reason.


    Keith on the other hand, had different tastes. To him, thedy beside Amelia was more to his preferences when it came to women.


    Since ra was still sitting, he couldn''t make out her height, but the rest wasn''t a problem. Just like Amelia, she had ck hair, but instead of being straight, her hair was wavy and it also had a silky lustre.


    Dark brown eyes, like the others but the way she dressed gave her a mature aura.


    Amelia wore a regr full sleeved white shirt and formal ck pants. The uniform of the department included a suit, but a single nce was enough to tell that she wasn''t wearing one.


    ra on the other hand, wore the suit and this alone made a huge difference. She didn''t exactly fit the beauty standards of this empire, but she certainly caught Keith''s eye.


    He looked away as he didn''t want to cause misunderstandings, but his mind was upied.


    ''Romance isn''t an option, at least not now. I''ll focus on improving my powers using my system administrator ability, but for how, I''ll go with the flow.''


    He turned to look at Brandon before speaking, "Sir Brandon, I was told that I''ll receive two sets of uniforms tailored specifically for me."


    "Oh that." Brandon said as he eyed him before nodding, "Sure, but not tailored."


    After saying that, he bent down to his left and pulled up a package wrapped in paper, "Here, based on your measurements, we got two standard sets for you. They''ll be loose for now, but I''m hoping that you''ll fit into them in the near future."


    "As for your weekly sry, you can get it from the owner of the inn. She''s actually a nun of our church and is in charge of our finances. So, if you need anything that isn''t rted to a client''s request, then she''s the person to go to."


    Keith nodded as he took a step forward to take the package and then walked out so the could receive his joining fee.


    Giving money to neers was a rule imposed by the empire and the churches also followed them. On the other hand, the ones who got the job would have no other choice but to work for a minimum of six months or pay three times the joining amount as a fine if they wish to leave early.


    This way, the poor people would be able to afford things that are required for the job, like new clothes. Corrupt ces that made use of this rule to exploit neers would be weeded out by the empire.


    As Keith opened the door, he heard a voice from behind him, "Use that money to buy yourself a weapon. You already received your uniform, so there''s no need for more clothes."


    "Understood."


    Saying that, he closed the door behind him and walked to the inn''s counter, only to see the woman give him a warm smile.


    "Congrattions on the job. Here''s the joining bonus." she said as she took out one silvery grey note from the pocket that was on her apron and ced it on the counter.


    Keith nced at the 10 Zen note and paused as he stared at it for a few seconds. While he had read about one person having thousands of Gold Chron notes, he personally had never been able to save up more than 5 zen in his entire life.


    ''And now, I''m getting 10 Zen just like that... I wonder how much I would have gotten if I joined the Money Church.'' he thought as he silently took the money and thanked the woman before leaving.


    His next destination wasn''t too far away, so after walking for a while, he stopped in front of a shop that said, "General Bett''s Weapon Store" and headed inside.


    The area was small. There was one counter in front of him like many other shops that he had visited, but there weren''t too many weapons on disy.


    On the wall, from the left to right, was a knife, a pair of knuckles, a short sword, a rapier, a small metal shield andstly, a regr long sword.


    He took out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and ced it on the counter before showing the ring to the old man in front of him.


    "I''m from the Church of Goddess of Protection and I wish to buy a restricted weapon on a loan. I''ll give you my Awakener Registration certificate as a coteral."

 Chapter 11: Double Action Revolver

    The old man, who was a retired general of the Empire''s army nodded as he took the paper and read the contents to verify if it was an original or not. Once he was done with it, he sighed, "Understood, but which weapon would you like to buy? Poisons or tranquilizers?"


    "A revolver, general Bett. As you can see, I''m not really cut out forbat, so the most efficient method of keeping my life intact is by having a weapon that doesn''t rely too much on skill and the quality of my physique."


    Bett stared at Keith for a while, deep in thought before nodding, "If you want to, then okay. No one must know about the revolvers at this point... so who told you about it? The priest?"


    "Sheriff Adam, he''s my brother inw."


    "Ah. Makes sense then. After all, he''s the one who used to provides us with ammo. The ability to create 12 bullets every day might not be much, but is extremely useful for the empire." he said as he nodded after finally understanding everything.


    Keith smiled in response, "Yeah, I''m d that my sister married someone as important as him."


    "Hahahah yes yes, she''s very lucky. Come with me and pick the revolver you want. Also, consider it a gift from this old man. Your family has helped me a lot, especially Adam."


    "If that''s the case, then I thank you wholeheartedly, General Bett."


    Bett waved his hand, showing that it doesn''t matter and walked into the store room that was behind the store with Keith silently following behind him.


    This room way way bigger than the actual shop and Keith saw multiple daggers, and every single weapon that was disyed outside. There were at least a hundred of each kind.


    He followed Bett to the end of the room and stopped in front of arge wooden box that did not have a lid on top. Inside the box, were multiple other boxes that had various luxurious finishes. Some boxes were polished until they reflected light and some had extremely intricate designs carved onto them.


    In Keith''s eyes, those boxes would have had more value in his oldpared to the revolvers themselves.


    He watched as Bett took out every single box and ced them on a table nearby. In total there were twelve boxes and out of these twelve, there were three different groups.


    Six boxes looked in, but were polished well along with having a small carving that said, "God Of War"


    Four boxes were painted ck and had a wax seal which showed the symbol of the Empire, which was basically a pce with a sun on top.


    Next were the two unique boxes. Both of them had intricate designs carved onto them and had no symbols or wax seals on them.


    Bett opened up one box that said "God Of War", one that had the wax seal of the empire and thest two boxes which had unique carvings on them.


    All four of them had revolvers inside them, but all of them had their own differences.


    Bett pointed at the first revolver, "This one is created by the craftsmen from the War Church. It''s cylinder can hold four bullets, but it has a unique mechanism where the entire cylinder detaches from the revolver so that you can quickly load up another cylinder."


    "This one is created by the empire and is the most basic one among all. While it is basic, it''s extremely reliable. It has five bullet chambers in the cylinder and uses stronger bulletspared to the Revolver from the War Church. This means longer ranger and higher attack power. Look, even the barrel is longer." he said as he lifted up the revolver, showing Keith the differences.


    Then, he picked up the two revolvers that were in two unique boxes.


    "These two... were crafted by individual craftsmen, so I can''t vouch for their reliability. But it''s my job to tell you about the weapons, so let''s continue."


    He lifted his left hand indicating that he was about to talk about the revolver in his left hand, "This one can also hold a maximum of six bullets, but the one thing that differentiates this one from the revolver issued by the empire is that this one is... let me remember... oh yeah, a double action revolver.


    Regr revolvers require you to pull the hammer back after you take a shot, but this one does it on it''s own. Which means that technically, you can shoot more in less time if you''re inexperienced with revolvers.


    Next, the one in my right hand is also made by the same guy. This one is also a double action revolver, but has a smaller barrel. This one will be easier to carry and hidepared to the others and it also uses the same bullets as the Empire''s revolver."


    Keith nodded, understanding what Bett was trying to say as he had already seen the bullets that Adam conjured out of thin air. They perfectly fit with the Empire''s revolvers and based on his old life''s knowledge, he could tell that these bullets were the same as 9mm bullets.


    He thought about it for a while and really liked the fourth revolver as he could easily hide on his body and move about freely. He didn''t care too much about range as he never nned on using the gun to snipe people more than a 100 meters away.


    "General Bett... I really like the fourth one, but I don''t know what to do since you told me that you can''t vouch for it''s reliability."


    Bett nodded, understanding what Keith was trying to say, "Yeah, I get it but you''re free toe exchange it whenever you want. After all, you''re going to have to practice with this first before using it on criminals."


    "That''s right." Keith said, nodding as that was exactly his n. He was from a country that had strict regtions when it came to the possession of fire arms, so he never had much of an experience rted to shooting.

 Chapter 12: First Death

    "Then just take it and have some fun. If youe across any problems, then I''ll exchange it for something else. I''ve been using the same craftsman''s revolvers for the past two years and I haven''t experienced any problems. Unfortunately, I''ve heard that some nobles areining about these revolvers failing randomly."


    Hearing this, Keith frowned as he remembered a character from the novel who had a history in crafting revolvers but had a lot of resistance from the nobles of the empire.


    "Will it be possible for you to tell me this craftsman''s name?"


    "Alvlin Bragus, that''s his name."


    Keith nodded and left the weapons store with the box in hand. The first thing he did was to go back to his sister''s house and hid the box in the guest room which he was allowed to stay at temporarily.


    Once he was done, he opened up the package and wore his uniform in front of the mirror.


    The suit wasn''t exactly luxurious as it wasn''t made of silk, which was the go to fabric type used by the nobles. Instead, every single piece of his uniform was made of cotton.


    ''From the texture, it looks like it''s high quality. To think that I''m getting something like this for free... hmm... feels nice actually.'' he thought as he put them on.


    They were slightly lose as he was extremelynky, but he didn''t really pose much of a problem as he could use a belt to keep his pants from falling off. He looked different in the uniformpared to his regr clothes.


    "I like this professional look better." hemented as he looked at his reflection.


    The uniform consisted of twopulsory pieces and the other two were optional. Thepulsory ones were the formal shirt and pants while the optional ones were the waistcoat and the zer.


    Keith liked the look of wearing all four of them, but then he took out a trench coat from the package and put it on after taking off his zer.


    ''With this, it''ll be easier to hide my revolver and there are a lot of pockets too. Will be very useful if used right.'' he thought as he nodded at his reflection before taking off the uniform. He then grabbed the two trench coats and the two zers before heading out of his room.


    He walked straight to the Kitchen where his sister mostly was during this time and saw her sitting on a chair with her back faced towards the door. Just from a nce, he could tell that she was breastfeeding her second child who was only four months old at the moment.


    "Reba? I need your help with something." he said, announcing his arrival while standing at he kitchen''s entrance.


    She turned around and looked at him, "What is it?"


    "Just need you to stitch me a holder for my uniform. Four in total, here''s my zers and trench coats."


    Reba nodded and turned back to look at her baby, "Okay, leave them in the living room and I''ll do it for you. I''ll have one ready by tomorrow so that you won''t have problems going to work tomorrow."


    She then paused for a second before hurriedly pulling her son off of her and fixed her clothes. She turned around and looked at Keith with a surprised look on her face, "You got a damn revolver?! How did you even know about them? Wait don''t tell me..."


    Keith gave her a nk and confused look, "Was I not supposed to know?"


    "You just... just go back to your room. Adam will be hearing form me tonight and I won''t go easy on him. I don''t care if he goes and drinks with his buddies at night but there''s no way I''m tolerating it when he nonchntly gives my brother a damn murder weapon!" she spat furiously as she red at Keith even though she was angry at her husband.


    The corners of Keith''s lips rose up for a second before he opened his mouth to speak.


    "Reba, listen. From today onwards, I''ll be working with the detectives of the church to both protect people who might have a chance of getting attacked, and also trying to subjugate the attackers. I''ll need a weapon to protect both myself and the clients. Think about it logically, yeah?" he said as he walked towards her and gave her a hug.


    "I''m d that you''re worried about me, but you shouldn''t be angry at Adam you know? This weapon could potentially save my life and it''s a fact that my job is a dangerous one."


    His eyes were on his baby nephew who was staring at him from the top of the kitchen counter as he patted his sister''s back, trying to calm her down.


    Reba said nothing for a few seconds before letting out a sigh.


    "Fine, I understand. Just... don''t be like Robert."


    Keith nodded and pulled himself away from her before nodding with a smile on his face. Seeing him smile, even Reba couldn''t hold herself back and giggled instead.


    "You bastard of a brother, you never hugged me before heiheihei. Anyways, you said you have a revolver right?"


    "I never did. You just assumed that I did but you''re right, I do have a revolver and they use the same bullets that Adam can create, so I n on asking him to give me some that he has been saving for all this time."


    Reba nodded, "Don''t worry about that. While going out tomorrow, you''ll see a small box at the entrance so just take that and go. If you need extra bullets, just ask me."


    "You''re the best sis! Love you!" Keith eximed as he grinned ear to ear and left he kitchen.


    As he walked back to his room, the expression on his face turned serious as a translucent screen appeared in front of him.


    [The host of the Revenge System has perished.]


    Cause of death: Stab wound, excessive blood loss.


    Would you like to rey the host''s death scene?


    Yes || No

 Chapter 13: First Target Acquired

    Keith first made sure that he was in his room and then locked the door before clicking on "Yes".


    His surroundings immediately changed and he found himself standing in an extremely small room small room.


    There was barely enough space for three people to sleep side by side and that was it. In a sense, it looked like a Japanese inte cafe''s cabin but without aputer.


    It didn''t take Keith any effort to spot Norn who was sleeping soundly on the bed that took up half of the room''s space. His suitcase was neatly ced beside his bed.


    A few seconds passed in silence until he saw the door open slightly. Frowning, he observed the person who had just opened the door and noticed that he was wearing a in reddish brown y mask.


    The man silently walked in, took out a dagger and swiftly brought it down at Norn''s neck, puncturing it. Before Norn could move even a bit, the masked man held him down for a few seconds until he died.


    Once he was done, he let go of Norn and stood still while looking down at the person he had just killed.


    "You might be lucky in evading us all this while, but looks like your luck runs out now. Or maybe just like Boss said, you could be an awakened with the ability to stay lucky. Does your luck go back to normal when you sleep? I better tell this to boss." he muttered as he continued to stare at Norn''s dead body.


    He then took out a small circr object and ced it on the stab wound before leaving the ce.


    Suddenly, a lot of smoke surrounded Keith and he was back in his room a secondter.


    ''...'' he stared at the wall in front of him in silence for a few seconds before taking a seat on his bed.


    ''Luck runs out when you sleep huh? I didn''t know about that... and I need to test it out.'' he thought as he imagined the gacha wheel.


    The moment he did, it appeared in front of him and this time, he felt a little more "powerful" like something within him had grown. In just one nce at the wheel, he could tell that it''s size increased.


    There was a slight change too, a very slight change. The white area was the same, but the others increased in width along with the increase in the wheel''s size. The increase was extremely small, so he didn''t really think that it would make much of a difference from the first time he had used it.


    ''Increase in my abilities... it should only be possible if Norn aplished his mission, which is revenge but I never received a notification about it. Oh well, it''s not like I won''t ept freebies.''


    He mentally pushed the spin button that was at the bottom of the wheel and saw it spin for an entire minute before slowing down. He watched in anticipation as he slowed down near a yellow section and was excited until he slightly moved forward to stop at a white one.


    "White again..." he muttered as the information about the new system flooded his mind.


    He closed his eyes and waited until he digested the information. Once he did, he nodded to himself as he looked up at the gacha wheel that still hadn''t vanished. But unlike before, there was a huge difference.


    There were only white sections on the wheel this time and the rest were nowhere to be seen.


    ''So now I can give two systems simultaneously as long as they''re both low level ones.'' he came to a conclusion as he pressed the spin button once again and waited for the cycle to repeat.


    Information flooded his mind and once he was done absorbing everything, he let out a smile.


    "To think that I''d be able to merge them together... but should I do it?" he asked himself and sat silently to think about it. A few minutes passed and once he made up his mind, he silently walked out of the house to search for his new system hosts.


    At this point, he had no solid goals to invest too much into one single person. Instead, he wished for instantaneous growth, which would work only if he gave his system to two different people and took something from them as a tax; notably their awakened powers but he didn''t mind taking their physicality as that was what he currentlycked at the moment.


    Keith''s first stop was the Church of the Money God. Unlike the Goddess of Protection''s Church which was simplistic, this one was adorned with gold sculptures. The stone walls were beautifully carved and there were a lot of paintings hung up on the inside of the church.


    As he was walking towards the confession room, which was also called the confessional and on the way, he spotted three guards escorting a youngdy from the other side of the room.


    All the churches had a simryout, so Keith could tell that they were bringing her in to make her a part of their church. And with three escorts like that, there was a high chance of this person being someone important, or someone who had recently awakened.


    ''Based on her clothes, she''s a middle ss family''s child and based on the policies of the Money church, there''s a high chance that her parents gave her away to the church and received money in return.'' he thought as he followed the four with his eyes until they left the main hall.


    After having acquired his target, he had no wish to stay her anymore, but he continued to walk toward the confessional and bbered nonsense. He was then forcefully pushed to donate money to the church, so he took out a small brak coin and pushed it into the donation box''s opening slit.


    Once done, he headed out of the church and went straight to the district''s training area that was right beside the empire''s army barracks.

 Chapter 14: The Maidens Pub

    The training ground was a ce were the Empire''s Military squadron that was deployed here for emergency, trained. Or at least, that was how it was supposed to be, but the only thing Keith saw was an empty ground.


    Not knowing what to do, he turned to look at the guard who was standing at the entrance of the training grounds.


    "Excuse me, why is the ground empty? I thought that the soldiers were supposed to be training here."


    "Oh that. Today is one of their birthdays so they went to party. They''ll be at a maiden''s pub if you wish to meet someone."


    Seeing that he got all the information he needed without having to ask much, he thanked the man and left to look for the pub. He asked the locals for directions and it took him some time to find the pub.


    ''.... so it''s that kind of pub.'' he mused internally as he walked in and saw approximately 20 men talking loudly while some of them touched the waitresses at inappropriate ces. The waitresses themselves did not mind, as this was a ce that encouraged such behavior.


    If they got a client, then it was an easy 1 to 3 Zen in their pockets.


    Keith didn''t pay any attention to the waitresses as he had other goals; to find a man who had an extremely good physique or someone who had awakened.


    As he walked towards an empty chair, his mind was on full gear as he tried to make up a way in which he could get information on every single soldier who was in this pub.


    For physique, his eyes were enough. But if he wished to know about their awakening, then he needed more than his eyes toe to a conclusion.


    As a waitress passed by, he signaled to her by raising his hand, showing that he had something to order. Seeing here to him with a glowing smile on her face, Keith smiled back and said, "Can I get a bottle of gin please?"


    "Just one, sir?" she asked with a stiff smile on her face.


    Seeing her expression change, Keith couldn''t help but sigh internally. Gin was the cheapest alcohol avable in the empire, and ordering something like that in a pub such as this, only meant one thing; Not a potential client to sell prostitution services to.


    "How much does one cost?" he asked her a question in return, instead of answering.


    She took a second to stare at him and then her expression changed even further, "You''ll get five bottles for one brak." she said with a scowl before adding, "So, how many would you like?"


    Seeing her act like this, Keith suddenly got an idea. He turned to look at the people at the bar and then shifted his gaze back to her, "I''ll take five."


    "O oh..." she stammered before adding, "I''ll get it for you sir, please make yourselffortable."


    He silently nodded and leaned back on his chair, knowing full well why her attitude took aplete 180 degree turn for the second time. Just from asking for the price of one bottle of Gin, Keith could tell that they were selling alcohol at market price.


    Which meant that the real business was prostitution services. As for why she acted respectful suddenly? It was because he had ordered 5 bottles for himself, which was equivalent to one bottle of Whiskey, which was priced at 1 Brak for a bottle.


    He didn''t have to wait for long, as the same waitress brought him his drinks pretty quickly and ced them on the table while also trying to seduce him.


    Unfortunately for her, Keith''s tastes didn''t align with most of the poption of the Empire. He simply thanked her and proceeded to ignore her antics as he downed two bottles at once.


    "Sir, please take it slow!" she eximed seeing his actions as it was prettymon for people to puke after drinking too much.


    Even though Keith didn''t say a thing, more than half of the bar''s attention was on him.


    "It''s fine, today I wish to get wasted." he said as he lifted his bottle and looked at the people of the bar who were already looking at him, "Today, Inded a great job and the pay is great too! Cheers everybody!"


    "Wooo, let''s go brother! Today is the night to celebrate!"


    "Hell yeah! Let''s get wasted together!"


    "Drink more, drink more!!"


    "More!"


    "More!"


    "Chug it all!"


    Kieth nodded, acknowledging all of them and downed the third bottle effortlessly. He then grabbed thest two and stretched his hand to the guy who was closest to him, "Let''s see who drinks the fastest."


    Seeing Keith''s smirk, the guy nodded confidently, "I didn''t drink much tonight, but this calls for a celebration isn''t it? My brother here is celebrating his birthday too."


    Saying this, he got up from his chair and grabbed the bottle that Keith gave him before clinking bottles with him, "Cheers! For my brother and for your new job!"


    "For your brother and for my new job!" Keith repeated before chugging down the fourth bottle as the soldier ced his arm around Keith''s shoulder, chugging his bottle along with him.


    "YEAAAAAAHHHHHH" the guy screamed as he ced the bottle on the table with a victorious smile on his face as he pointed at Keith''s half empty bottle, "I win, hahahahahaha!"


    "Hahahaha, yeah you win." Keith agreed before turning to look at the waitress, "Can I get something to eat? Any chicken dish will be fine."


    The waitress nodded and left, after which he shifted his attention to the guy beside him who had just let him go, "I drank too much so I''ll go pee. Let''s have some more fun tonight."


    "Sure sure, me and my brothers will be waiting for you right here." the soldier said, smiling ear to ear as he watched Keith head to the toilets.


    Once inside the toilets, the first thing Keith did was to stuff two of his fingers up his throat and a momentter, everything that he had just drank, came out, making it look like a dam had just burst.


    ''Can''t have so much alcohol in my body when I''m trying to get important things done. Gotta be sober.'' he thought as he flushed and walked towards the sink so he could wash his face.

 Chapter 15: Gifting a Playboy System

    Keith then washed his face and emptied thest half bottle into the toilet. He flushed it and walked out of the washroom with a smile on his face.


    He had experience all stages of drunkenness in his previous life, so he knew that he''ll have to act sober now and slowly begin to drift into acting like he was actually drunk. He headed to the group of tables where the army men were sitting, and joined their chatter.


    As a foreign party who had no experience of the military, he yed the part of a curious and easily impressed person.


    "Oh wow, so you guys train every single day from morning to evening? Oh god, that''s unimaginable for me, like just look at my bony arms hahahahaha!" he said as he pulled up his sleeves and even though it wasn''t too funny, the soldiers stillughed like they were having the time of their lives.


    From a single nce, Keith could tell that they were slightly intoxicated at this moment.


    ''Well, they came here before me, so it makes sense that the alcohol had started to move along their blood stream.''


    He continued chatting with them until his meal was brought to him by the waitress. It was a simple roasted chicken with a nice reddish brown gravy. He shared some with the boys and ate the rest himself until he felt like the time was right.


    "Do you guys know how I got this job? I actually worked extremely hard to get good grades in thew and order examination but unfortunately, I only did good enough to be a street patroller.


    A job with a measly pay and in return, I must walk around a few streets for an entire day. Where''s the fun in that? Also what do I get in return? 1 brak a day? Hah!" heined before smirking.


    "But then, I found out by mistake that I was an awakened. Boom! Now I earn two whole zen per week!"


    "Brother, you''re really lucky! Just like Minter here. He''s an awakened too, but it isn''t of much use in our field unfortunately."


    Keith was interested and didn''t hide this fact as he turned to look at Minter, "Woah, so you''re an awakened too? Why did you join the army when you knew that it isn''t going to be useful in your job?"


    Minter let out a wryugh before exining, "My parents died and I was taken in my the Empire. I never had a choice and nor is my awakened ability actually useful."


    Saying that, he showed Keith his palm and from the middle of his palm. a thread grew out.


    "See? I can make cotton threads... which is absolutely useless and I have no interest in bing a tailor." he said as he shook his head.


    Keith nodded, losing interest in the ability as well. He looked at everyone around him and saw that no one had any more words to say, which meant that there weren''t anymore awakened ones in this group or they were hiding it.


    If they were hiding information, then Keith really did not have a way to force them to blurt out the information, so he decided to go with the second best thing. He nced at the person who seemed to have the most athletic body.


    He didn''t go for the "strongest" person as he could copy a person''s entire physique and did not wish to look like a beefed up hulking monster.


    Keith then grabbed a few cups and poured wine into all of them, filling them halfway. Then he began to distribute them to everyone around him and made sure that he transferred one of the two white systems into the ss that he nned to give to his target.


    ''Set condition: Trigger the system screen when he looks at a weapon.''


    Once the condition was set, he didn''t have to worry about him being suspected and continued to be amicable with the soldiers until all of them were almost wasted.


    Keith too, acted like he was and put his head down on the table to sleep. He didn''t act this time and did fall asleep, only to be woken up after a few hours.


    With a groggy look, he opened his eyes at looked at the pretty face of the waitress before frowning.


    "Ugh, my head hurts..." heined as he turned to look at the others who seemed fine around him.


    "Hahahah, looks like your body isn''t too great with alcohol. Maybe it''ll be better to go back home to take rest instead. We''ll proceed to have some fun with these beauties."


    Keith nodded in response and got up from his chair before looking at the waitress, "How much was the chicken?"


    "That gentleman paid for you, sir. You don''t have to worry about it anymore." she said, smiling at him while getting her nonexistent ass groped.


    "Oh okay." Keith said and turned to look at the person whom she pointed at, "Thank you."


    "No worries brother, you have fun with your new job. Hopefully, we''ll meet again in the future." the soldier said with a bright smile on his face and Keith nodded in response while smiling back.


    Once he was done with the formalities, he walked of the pub and headed back home without stopping anywhere. Night time wasn''t exactly safe as he knew that there were too many things going on due to a certain gang''s existence.


    It only took him a few minutes of brisk walking to get back home and the moment he did, he rushed to the bathroom and took a nice bath. He then washed his own clothes and covered himself with a towel before heading to the guest room.


    It took him less than two minutes to wearfortable clothes and to put up his washed, wet clones onto a clothesline in the backyard. Once everything was done, he went to bed, expecting a nice gift when he''d wake up the next day.


    But.


    yboy System activated.


    Trigger: When user looks at a weapon.


    System''s Goal: Sleep with 10 different women in one year.


    [A/N: Original n was to name it the Gigolo system but I felt like certain people might get offended. But hey, yboy sounds better at least.]

 Chapter 16: Unusual Systems

    With a mentalmand, a new system screen appeared in front of him.


    yboy System


    User: Sahoy Tahini


    Capabilities: Provides an increase in sexual stamina the more women the user sleeps with. System will disappear once the user sleeps with 10 different women.


    System Tax: Physical money; 30 Zen or Inheritance of the user''s physique.


    ''Money is fleeting and I also don''t wish to spend too much time or money on gaining muscles.'' he thought as he picked the physique.


    For a second, he felt like the world around him stopped, but then a stinging pain assaulted his entire body. He hurriedly bit down on his own arm to keep himself from screaming.


    He rolled down on the floor as he struggled with the pain for one whole minute after which the pain slowly subsided. Hey down on the floor silently, panting as he thought about the changes in his body.


    In truth, there was no visual change other than the one inch increase in height, which now officially made him 6 foot tall.


    He hadn''t just received the pain for nothing. He also got a tiny bit of new information about how the ''inheritance'' worked.


    The concept was simple; he didn''t have to train or work out like the others and would only need to consume the necessary nutrients until he attained theplete physique of soldier Sahoy Tahini.


    "Great, just eat to build your body. Oh how great this would have worked in my previous life." he muttered before chuckling and got himself onto the bed before drifting off to sleep.


    The next day, he woke up and freshened up before putting on his uniform. He then headed to the kitchen and saw Adam wearing his trench coat.


    Adam noticed Keith and grinned before showing off, "This thing looks great on me don''t you think so?"


    "Yeah, but take it off. I woke up a littlete so I must hurry." Keith said helplessly as he did not really wish to lie. The trench coat almost touched Adam''s ankles and was clearly oversized.


    "Bah, you jealous bastard! You just don''t want me to look good."


    Before Keith could say a thing, a ball of cloth hit Adam on his face and from the other side of the kitchen, he saw his sister pointing at Adam with adle.


    "Wear my lingerie, I''m sure you''ll look way better than you look right now." she said as she red at him and then added, "Just go wear your own uniform, you blind pig."


    ''Damn...'' Kieth thought to himself as he didn''t want to interfere and nor did he want tough right in front of Adam''s face when his wife was scolding him.


    Adam sighed and shook his head, "Haii... these women don''t get humour."


    Saying that, he quickly took off Keith''s trench coat and tossed it towards him before rushing out of the kitchen as adle flew in front of Keith and went straight out of the kitchen.


    He scoured through his memories about his sister and realised one thing.


    She was an overly protective sister who''d always take her brothers'' side even if they were in the wrong.


    Once he realised this, he felt pity for Adam but silently wore his trench coat and turned to look at his sister.


    "What''s for breakfast?"


    "Since it''s your first day, I''ve made sausages, bacon, omelettes and I also bought a good cut of beef for you. I''ll send your breakfast to your workce so don''t worry about gettingte. Just eat this while you go." she said as he gave him a thick sandwich.


    It had a lot of meat slices in the middle and just from one look, Keith could tell that he would have no other vour.


    "I''m not thatte. Don''t worry, I''ll eat this sandwich right here." he said as he grabbed an onion, a tomato and a bowl of butter.


    Reba watched as he tweaked his sandwich and once he was done, it looked pretty nice. In fact, she was confident that it looked better than her original version.


    Seeing her look at him suspiciously, he shook his head with a smile on his face as he cut the sandwich diagonally. He then grabbed another small te and ced one piece on it before giving it to his sister.


    "Here, I''ll get the rest of my breakfastter so let''s share this for now."


    "No, I''m supposed to eat after everyone else in the family is done eating." she said stubbornly as she pushed the te away, but Keith shook his head.


    "Stop talking bullshit and just eat. No one''s here to judge you nor me."


    He then watched her stare at her te and then she looked up at him, wanting to say no, but he interjected her.


    "If you''re not gonna eat, then I''m going work on an empty stomach. Pick your poison, you witch."


    Hearing his words, she frowned and smiled at the same time, "I hate you."


    "Yeah yeah, I hate you too." he said as he saw her take the first bite and grabbed his part of the sandwich as well.


    The two of them didn''t say anything more and ate in silence. Once Keith was done, he washed his hands and walked out of the kitchen with Reba right behind him.


    "Your bullets are right there." she said as she pointed to the small tea table in the living room and Keith turned to look at a small wooden box ced on it.


    He nodded and grabbed the box before putting it inside one of his many pockets and walked into his room so he could grab his revolved too.


    He stuffed the revolver into a special pocket which was stitched on the inside of the trench coat by Reba for an easy ess.


    Once he was done with everything, he took a deep breath and left the house as he thought about the remaining system that he still hadn''t given to anyone.


    ''Lucky Protection System... of all the three systems that I''ve currently gotten, none of them really sound like actual systems. Maybe it''s because they''re temporary, so I guess I''ll have to wait until I get the other ones.''

 Chapter 17: The First Client

    The white systems not working like systems was partially true, but Keith felt that way only because he never put any effort into controlling his systems.


    Norn died before Keith could even do a thing and his new system user, Sahoy had gotten the systemst night. As for the target of the protection system, Keith still hadn''t given it to her.


    The reason why he picked the Church of Money was because their higher officials were extremely corrupt and there was a 99% chance of them taking advantage of the youngdy who would''ve already be an official member of the church by now.


    Keith silently walked at the side of the street while the carriages moved at the center of the roads. Hawkers and random people tried to advertise their products at the side of the roads.


    As for the pedestrians, they had no choice but to walk right beside the line of hawkers and movable stalls if they didn''t want to get stomped by animals or get cussed at for walking at the middle of the road.


    Keith stopped in front of a man who was standing beside a human rickshaw with an open roof. Instead of a human rickshaw, it would have been more urate to call it a modified human pulled cart instead as it did not have a seat for humans to sit on.


    Instead, there were stacks of newspapers.


    Keith recalled the prices of newspapers and looked at the thin, brown skinned man as he put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a brak coin.


    "Tokens for one brak." he said and the man nodded in response as he took the coin and put it into his leather pouch. He then grabbed a small stack of thin yellow papers and gave Keith three of them.


    Keith just took two and pointed at the newspapers, "I''ll take one of those for now instead."


    "As you wish, young man." the guy said as he grabbed one of the newspapers and gave it to Keith with a smile on his face, "Have a nice day!"


    "You too." he replied back with a smile before leaving with the newspaper in hand. As he walked, he put the tokens in a separate pocket.


    Minutes passed by and he finally walked into the inn, and then headed into the main office.


    All four of them were already inside and Keith greeted them with a slight nod, "Morning everyone."


    "Keith." the man who was the oldest in the room said with a smile on his face before pointing a finger towards himself, "You left before I introduced myself yesterday."


    "Ah yeah, sorry about that."


    "Nah nah, I''m growing old and forgetful already. It''s not your fault. As for my name, you can call me Edward and we''re good." he said with a warm and wise smile.


    Amelia energetically quipped in, "Yeah, you can also call him uncle Ed just like me."


    "Yeah I like the ring of it." Keith said, smiling.


    Brandon knocked on his table a few times, getting every single one of their attention.


    "We have a client and we must meet them at their mansion. The pay is good, so expect a nice bonus." he said with a rxed expression on his face before grabbing a piece of paper that was on the table.


    "Our client this time is a bar. Not a true noble, but hey, at least he''s rich. Anyways, moving on to the main point, he says that he found this in front of his door yesterday and along with this was a letter that said, "You''re Next." and well... the guy is currently lying on his bed with a high fever."


    He then grabbed something from his drawer and ced it on the table for everyone to see.


    Keith immediately recognised it as this was the same exact circr object that he had seen the assassin ce on Norn''s body after killing him. Apart from that, his little finger began to twitch.


    He silently lifted his hand and balled his fist except that one finger so that everyone in the room could see.


    "So this is the way you sense danger?" Amelia asked curiously as her eyes stayed on his pinky.


    "One of the ways, yes. The shaking of my finger means the lowest level of danger. If I feel my arms hurting, then that''s the second level and finally, when everything around me slows down including myself while only my thoughts move at a regr speed.


    Third level means that I''m extremely close to death. Second means that there''s a chance of me dying and also includes the chance of getting injured. First one i simply just a chance of injury. It can range from 20 percent to 100 percent, but this does not mean death." he exined as he walked towards the table and looked at Brandon as he pointed at the item.


    Brandon nodded as watched Keith grabbed the item before dropping it onto the table immediately.


    "Level two. There''s a high chance of this man getting attacked and there''s a possibility of anyone getting attacked as long as they are in possession of this." Keith said as he rubbed his forearm and took a few steps backwards.


    Brandon nodded and turned to look at Edward, who stood up from his rocking chair.


    "Well then, I''ll exin the how things normally work as we move. You''ll also have to learn about everyone''s awakened abilities too." Ed said as he walked towards the door, which Keith and the others right behind him.


    He looked older than everyone in the group, but just from the way he walked, Keith could infer that the man in front of him was extremely active. He followed Edward to a normal looking carriage and got inside.


    Once he did, Edward began to exin.


    "Let''s start with me first." he said, "I just have a regr physical strength enhancement. Nothing too serious, so I''m just slightly stronger than a regr human. As for Amelia... she''s an interesting child."

 Chapter 18: Want a Taste?

    "She calls her power the "Princess of the night", but that''s just her being a child. Her ability is categorised under mystic and basically makes her look more charming to the people around her during the night. It''s easier for her to convince people to do the things she wants too.


    As for Brandon, he''s an elemental awakener. He grows extremely hard rocks on his body, but they''re individually small, so it''s still easy for him to move normally. It provides him with exceptional defence and since his skin basically turns into stone, his punches hurt harder than mine.


    ra is the most unique one among us. It''s hard to categorise her ability as she summons a in white glove. But whomever she touches while wearing this glove, will obtain protection from our Goddess."


    Keith''s eyes opened wide when he heard about ra''s ability. Not only due to the direct protection of the goddess, but because he recognised this ability from the novel itself.


    It was from a character who was a soft hearted viin, and she was called the Shield of the Devil. Unfortunately, this character only got a a screen time of five to six chapters before getting killed by the main character.


    ''The ability to grant shields to others... but there was nothing written about summoning gloves.'' he thought as he frowned, trying to remember more about this character.


    As he thought, the others joined the two in the carriage until it almost filled up.


    After a while, Keith gave up as he could not remember anything important about the character. She had no fan arts and nor did anyone like or dislike her, which tossed her into the ignored and forgotten category.


    "Miss ra, could you show me your-"


    Before he could finish, he saw a glove appear on her hand. It looked like a whitetex glove that doctors wore, but when he touched her hand, he could tell that it was silk.


    "A physical glove... so you can grant the goddess''s protection to anyone you touch with this glove?" he asked as he shifted his attention from to gloves to her face.


    "U-um.. yes. But there are limits. At most, I can grant protection to five people at the same time, but the more I concentrate on one person, the moreyers of protection they get." she exined as her face slowly turned a light shade of red.


    Keith nodded and took his hand back before he went back to his own thoughts.


    The character written in the book never used differentyers of protection, so he crossed ra out as the chances of her being this character was now pretty low.


    But this changed when he heard her next words.


    "Back when I was twelve, the gloves I summoned were made of cotton. As I aged, these gloves went up to my elbows and when I turned twenty, they came back to my wrists but the material changed to silk. I''m twenty four now and from the past four years, the thickness of the gloves has been decreasing."


    Keith didn''t show any sort of emotion other than slight curiosity, "That''s interesting. I''m guessing that the potency of the goddess''s protection also increased as time passed."


    "Yes, it did." she said, her smile so charming that Keith had to force himself to look away.


    ''Skin as pale as a ghost... I clearly remember this description of that character. Maybe it''s not the skin but a very thinyer of silk that covered her entire body? The possibility is high as she was killed by the main character more than a decade from now.''


    While he was trying to recall the events from the novel, Amelia and Brandon had their eyes on him but with different expressions on their faces.


    "You... why aren''t you nervous? And why are you flirting with ra?" Amelia asked, prompting Keith to raise one of his eyebrows.


    "Who''s flirting with who? I''m just curious about her powers, that''s all." he said, but Brandonughed as he pped his left knee thrice while doing so.


    He then looked at Amelia and smirked, "You''re jealous that he''s not paying you any attention, am I right?"


    Hearing this Amelia red at him and her expression changed slightly as she smiled, "Well, maybe I am. After all, it''s easier to like someone who doesn''t ask me out of the first day I join. And damn, you were persistent."


    She then shook her head like she was dealing with a child.


    Keith, not knowing what to do, looked at Edward who was silently smiling while watching the drama unfold. Seeing the oldest in the team like this, Keith decided to not interfere and simply enjoy the entertainment.


    "Hah? You clearly used your charming ability to get into my head! I can create rocks on my body to protect myself from physical attacks but not magic spells from evil witches like you!" he countered back before pointing at Keith.


    "Also, it''s clear that he''s flirting with ra because he found out that you''re an evil witch the moment he saw you. Tch tch, who would even want to be with ck hearted vixen like you? Haaa...."


    Keith saw Brandon sigh exaggeratedly and didn''t know what to say. He simply wanted to enjoy the show, but now he was dragged into the center of the battlefield.


    The carriage was small, but Amelia was a slenderdy. She lifted her leg and stomped the area between Brandon''s legs. Her lips curled into an arrogant smile, while Brandon scoffed back with a knowing smile.


    "I''m used to your tricks by now."


    It was clear that Brandon had used his stone skin to protect his jewels, but unfortunately for Keith, Amelia shifted her targets when she found out that her tricks were ineffective against Brandon.


    "My dear neer, tell me. Tell me why you were flirting with ra. If you don''t..." she said warningly and nced down at his crotch area before licking her lips with a mischievous glint in her eyes.


    Keith couldn''t help himself and instinctively blurted out.


    "If you really wish to have a taste that desperately, just tell me directly."

 Chapter 19: The Grand Piano

    "You.. huh? what?" Amelia said as she was caught off guard and didn''t know how to respond.


    It was not just her, but everyone in the carriage as they stared at Keith like he had been possessed.


    The first one to break the silence was Brandon as he couldn''t stop himself from snickering, which then turned into a loudughter.


    "-aahaahaaaa! Oh goddess of protection! I love thisd, hahahahahahaahaaaa!" he eximed before he began to cough.


    Keith looked at the people around him innocently like he had never said something questionable, "Did I do something wrong?"


    Unfortunately for him, even he had a limit to how much he could control his facial expressions. On top of that, Brandon''sughter was too contagious, especially for Keith.


    The moment he finished his question, a smile popped up on his face, which gave Amelia the feeling that he was mocking her.


    She red at him as she balled her fist and just as she was about to punch his eggs, ra grabbed her by her arm and shook her head, "You''re making a very bad first impression..."


    "But raaa!! He''s the one who started it!" sheined as she looped her hand around ra''s and leaned against her.


    "Not really." ra rebutted before she began to reprimand her junior, "You were the one who started attacking Brandon''s... um attacking him. When you don''t act like ady, you shouldn''t expect them to act like gentlemen either."


    Amelia then make a cute face, but ra shut her down before she could do what she wanted to, "No, won''t work against me. If you act out more, then I won''t give you my protection."


    "Tch, fine." she said as she let go of ra''s arm, but ra didn''t stop there.


    "Don''t you think that you must apologise?"


    "But..." Amelia began and when she saw ra''s expression, she backed down and looked at Keith with fire in her eyes, "I. Am. Sorry."


    Keith nodded, "Okay, don''t worry about it. Just... don''t do it in the future. I value them a lot and I don''t have stone skin like our head detective. Also, I apologise for my remarks too. I blurted them out without thinking."


    Amelia blinked twice and paused for a second before nodding, "Okay, I won''t hit you."


    "Good, cuz I believe in equality. If you hit me there, I''ll hit you there too." Keith said with a face so straight that it shocked the team once again.


    Edward looked at Brandon andmented, "Theing days are going to be fun, aren''t they?"


    "Of course. I thought that this kid was a boring guy but this is shocking."


    "Sir Brandon, I''m just saying that I stand for equality."


    Brandon waved his hand nonchntly, "Yeah yeah. Only monkeys will believe your words. Say, do you want to visit the maiden''s pub with me tonight?"


    Keith stared at the muscr guy in front of him and shook his head, "Sorry, but I don''t swing that way. I prefer women."


    This time, Amelia didn''t let go of the chance andughed so loud and for so long that everything Brandon said got drowned by her voice.


    Unfortunately for him, they had reached their destination before he could clear things up. Agitated, he rushed out of the carriage while Amelia followed behind him with a bright smile on her face like she had aplished a great thing just now.


    Keith on the other hand, got off the carriage with mixed thoughts.


    ''I should have controlled my damn mouth. But.. I guess it''s fine to rx when I''m around these guys. They don''t seem too bad after all, and there''s a limit to where I can go by being alone. I''ll keep my important secrets to myself, but I''ll chill around them.''


    As he made his decisions, he followed behind his team as they walked towards a decent sized duplex house which was at least four timesrger than his sister''s house. Along with that, there was empty area surrounding the mansion on all sides.


    ''So bars have such wealth, huh?'' he thought as he stopped in front of the door while Brandon knocked on it. The group waited for a few seconds until a young man in a suit opened the door.


    Brandon showed him his church''s ring and the man lifted his hand until it was parallel to the ground, motioning them to enter.


    As Keith walked in, he leaned towards Amelia who was the only one beside him and asked, "Am I expected to learn about their etiquette and stuff? Because I don''t know a thing about any of those."


    "It''ll help you a lot if you learn, but hey, we''re a team and you got me so you don''t have to worry." she said with a confident look on her face.


    Keith nodded and straightened himself as he considered the possibility of learning etiquette.


    ''If I learn, then like she said, I''ll be able to mingle well with the high circles. And getting epted by the nobles will help me in the long run too. It''s slightly annoying, but there''s nothing bad that''ll happen from learning etiquette.''


    By the time he made his decision, they had reached arge room that was adorned with multiple framed paintings and pieces of calligraphy. There were also some nice looking statues, but the one that caught Keith''s eye, was the grand piano.


    Just one look at the ck and white keys brought back a wave of nostalgia from his teens and early twenties. He wasn''t exactly a grand piano yer, but he did y the electric piano which technically was different.


    ra and Edward noticed this as Keith had stared at the piano for a bit too long.


    And they weren''t the only ones who did as Keith heard a raspy voice while he was still staring at the piano.


    "Hm~ it would appear that one from amongst you fancies my piano performance. If it pleases you, I would be most thrilled to perform a piece for your entertainment"

 Chapter 20: Baronet Clangson

    "Oh, no it''s alright. I was just lost in thought and I feel like it''s better if we just do the thing we came here for." Keith said, rejecting the bar.


    The Bar was a slender man just like Keith, but for some reason he looked healthier. Bar was a title given to the people who contribute to the Empire financially or through other means and was temporary as it onlysted for two generations.


    Unlike Bars, the other noble titles were technically permanent and could be passed down to their respective kids indefinitely. The titles that fell into this category were Baron, Viscount, Earl, Marquess andstly Duke.


    Their importance and power went up from the left to right, with the duke being only below the royal princes and princesses.


    "If you insist." the man said as he pursed his lips, clearly unhappy with Keith''s response but Keith didn''t care.


    Brandon took a step forward and gave him a slight bow before standing up straight, "Well, my subordinate is right. It''ll be good for all of us to just get to our job and if I may ask, did you offend or antagonise someone in the recent times?"


    The Bar watched Brandon take out the circr object with a paper and nodded, "Hm, I was actually just minding my own business but while I was trying to buy something that caught my eye in the ck market, someone tried to bid against me for it.


    But they obviously didn''t expect me to be a Bar with immense wealth, so I easily won the item hohohohoho!"


    Seeing the guy pleased with himself when his life was on the line, Keith really was lost for words. Luckily for him, he didn''t have to do the talking as Brandon took care of most of it.


    After talking to the wannabe noble for a while, Brandon turned around and focused on Keith, "Keith, follow me. Others, stay close to Sir ngson."


    Keith nodded and followed behind Brandon and the Butler who guided them out of the living room, to the study room of ngson. He then pointed at a brush stand that looked like a mini human skull that had a hole on the top.


    Brandon silently walked towards it and nced at Keith who gave him a slight nod and grabbed it. The instant he did, he felt like his arm had turned into stone. One second he felt intense pain and the other, he was unable to even feel his arm.


    He let go and immediately sat down on the floor to calm down his racing heart, which took a few minutes. Once he calmed down, he grabbed random things in the room and didn''t feel anything serious other than slight twitching of his finger once or twice.


    "Sir ngson likes to collect unique items." the butlermented when he saw Keith examining various items in the room.


    "Well... understandable I guess." he said as he was actually impressed by the collections. Most of them were precious stones with some that looked like stones that had ancient text written on them which could easily just turn out to be random scratches or could have been forged.


    Once he was done examining the whole room, he turned to Brandon, "It''s just that skull. Everything else in this room is fine."


    "Okay." Brandon replied as he grabbed the paint brushes from the skull and ced them on the table before taking the skull with him, "Let''s go meet up with the others."


    Nodding in response, Keith followed the head detective but as they were on their way, Brandon began to speak, "Usually, the entire team doesn''t go out for a single mission so I want you to keep this in mind. It''s either 2 or 3 for one client but you got lucky as we got a bar.


    He promised to pay more, so the church ordered the deployment of everyone. Usually, it takes us more than just a day to keep someone protected as we don''t really know when they''ll get attacked. Try to learn as much as possible from this one."


    "Understood, Sir Brandon."


    "Mhm. I got a letter from an old friend of mine which said that a certain someone from our church was gifted a revolved by him." Brandon said as he ced his arm on Keith''s shoulder, "Learn how to use that thing as soon as possible. I''ll put you in a night shift with Amelia so use your free time until noon to practice and then try to sleep. We don''t need you sleeping in the middle of your shift."


    Keith nodded, but then he realised something, "But Sir Brandon, both me and her do not exactly havebat oriented capabilities."


    "Oh, you don''t know her do you? Well... just do as I say and some day, you''ll find out. Actually, since you''ll be sharing a shift with her, it''ll be soon."


    After saying that, he didn''t borate, but Keith understood what his words meant. If two people withbat focused awakened abilities put someone with nonbative ability on Keith''s team, then it only meant two things.


    One was that she was extremely strong even without abat oriented ability. Or Brandon was just messing with him by putting him in the same team as the devil.


    Nheless, he didn''t throw away the possibility of Amelia being strong. But there was one thing that contradicted this and that was her weekly sry. Even though he had doubts, he didn''t say it out loud and instead kept his thoughts to himself as he could just confirm his theory by observing when the timees.


    The two of them met up with the Edward and the twodies in the kitchen. The three of them were sitting at a long dining table along with ngson and his family, which consisted of his wife, two concubines and then a total of five kids, all of whom were of different ages.


    As for how Keith figured out the wife and concubines? It was from their essories. Married women wore an engagement ring on their ring finger along with a ne that has at least one emerald embedded onto it.


    When it came to concubines, they only wore nes but these were different as they had Ga embedded into them instead of emerald.

 Chapter 21: Spoiled Daughter and Noble Etiquette

    As for the reasons why they picked these two stones, Keith really did not know as it was never mentioned in the novel and since it was a concept more prevalent within nobles, the old Keith was also not exposed to knowledge rted to this.


    Polygamy wasmon in the Empire and this went both ways. Females could have multiple male partners or Males could have multiple female partners. But there was one thing that wasmon between the two.


    If a female decides to have multiple male partners, then her male partners would be forbidden from getting sexually involved with another woman. This went both ways and it was more urate to call it a w of the empire" more than calling it "forbidden".


    Usually, it was themoners who would take the role of concubines or a paramour, the male counterpart of concubine after the true meaning of "paramour" slowly changed through history from being a secret lover to an official lover.


    To sum everything up, it was usually the rich and powerful who had multiple partners. And among these, it was mostly men who went after harems as they were rtively "Free" in terms of social standing in the Kazak Empire.


    Keith silently followed behind Brandon and sat down beside Edward who was furthest from the main chair where ngson was sitting. Brandon on the other hand, took the seat that was right beside the Bar as it was left free specifically for him.


    One of the maids walked towards him and in just a few seconds, set up a te of food for him which was basically just cut up bread along with meat and vegetable stew. He nced at Edward who hadn''t touched his food yet and then looked at the others.


    Out of the five of them, only Amelia was the one who confidently ate her food along with the nobles of this family and based on the way she ate and the way the nobles did, Keith had a feeling that she was a noble, but of a higher standing.


    He leaned towards Edward and whispered, "Is Amelia a noble?"


    "She was. Then she pped one of the royal princes when she turned neen and her family disowned her. It was done out of necessity as that prince was spoiled and his mother, the queen was very supportive of all of his actions so her father had no choice.


    She then joined our church and one of our arch bishops had to move for her sake. In just one night, the prince changed his mind and so did the queen. Unfortunately though, her father never took her back."


    Keith nodded as his view of Amelia change drastically. As a reader, he knew how bad it was to live as a noble, especially as someone good looking as the royal family members were a bunch of horny dogs. This was the same for the neighbouring countries and kingdoms too, except a select few people.


    While Brandon talked to ngson, Keith silently listened to their conversation until he felt something touch his leg. He looked forward and saw a young girl who was barely 8 years old eating silently. The table was too wide even for an adult to be able to reach Keith''s legs, which only meant two things.


    One was that there was someone under the table and the second possibility was that someone at the table or one of the maids in the room, was an awakened.


    Just as he was thinking, he heard a high pitched yelp from his right and turned to look at Amelia who had jumped up from her chair while the chair itself flew backwards from the force. She then lifted the white cloth that was used the cover the table and looked under it, only to find nothing.


    "Brandon, I felt someone touch my leg." she said, frowning deeply as she looked at every single person at the table.


    ngson sighed when he heard her words and looked at his eldest daughter, "Maria, out of the room."


    "But father!"


    "I said out of the room, darling." the Bar said with a smile on his face which shut his daughter up in an instant. Feeling embarrassed, she left the room with her head hung low while Amelia red at her back.


    Unfortunately for ngson, she didn''t let the issue go and pressed for an exnation, "Bar ngson, is this how you teach your kids to behave when you have guests at your home?"


    "Miss detective, I apologise. I was too doting as she was my only daughter back then and now she''s too spoiled. It''s toote for me to do anything about her, but the rest of my kids are well trained in the mannerisms of nobles." he said, trying to exin himself, but when he saw that Amelia''s frown deepened even further, he ced his fork and knife on the table.


    "If you''ve been hurt by my daughter''s actions, then I apologise. As a token of apology, will it be fine ifpensate you with a thin stack of Zen?"


    Keith saw the disgust on Amelia''s face grow further, but ra and Brandon both grabbed her by the wrist which seemed to work really well when it came to calming her down.


    "Sure." she said one word and turned to look at the maids, "Will someone bring me back my chair? Or did this Bar not teach you guys anything?"


    "W- we''re sorry, madame!" the one who looked like the head maid stammered as she hurried over and brought her back the chair.


    The rest of the meal was eaten in silence until the Bar and his family were done. They silently left after telling Brandon''s group to have their fill.


    And the moment they left the room, Brandon dug into his food like a hungry bear before turning to look at Keith, "Kid, don''t let go of this chance and eat until the food fills up to your throat!"


    Keith nodded and looked at Amelia, "Can you teach me? The etiquette I mean."

 Chapter 22: Norns Death

    Two hourster.


    There was still a lot of food on the table, but Keith, Brandon and Edward were done. They''d eaten so much that they didn''t really feel like moving.


    ra, even though she was usually silent, spoke up, "Keith, you''re so thin but you ate so much... just how?"


    "Well... I usually only ate bread and drank some soup or water. Sooo... I just ate and now the only thing I wish to do is sleep." he said as he patted his bulging belly.


    It wasn''t that the food was tasty. Compared to the stuff he ate in his previous life, this was categorised as vourless one out of ten food. The only reason he stuffed himself was because of the meat and all the nutritious food on the table. Even though it wasn''t tasty, as long as it helped him boost his physique, then he would force himself to eat it.


    "Ugh..." Brandon let out a grunt as he got up from his chair, "Keith and Amelia, go and get some rest until evening. You two will be on the night shift, oh and Amelia, take this kid to the church''s practice range and teach him how to use a revolver."


    Amelia looked surprised when he heard Brandon''s words and so did the other two in the team. All of them shifted their attention to Keith whozily put his hand inside his trench coat before pulling out his revolver.


    "Oh wow..." ramented while the other two nodded in response. Brandon on the other hand, didn''t stop, "Fun fact guys, this guy is the brother inw of Adam Brown."


    "Ah that guy..." Amelia said as she gave Keith a pitiful look while shaking her head, "Anyways, let''s gozybones. I''ll teach you how to use this weapon and in return, you must pay me in bullets. I charge 5 bullets per day!"


    Seeing her change the topic cheerfully, Keith nodded as he nned to ask her more about Adamter on. He got up from his chair and let out a grunt before walking out of the room with Amelia following right behind him.


    As they walked out of the house, he turned to look at her, "Hey, will it be fine if we take a walk? I feel like if I sit down one more time, I won''t be able to get back up."


    "Sure." she readily agreed as she slowed down her pace to match Keith''s.


    Seeing that she didn''t n on talking, he decided to deal with other special matters and imagined the soldier he hadst night. The moment he did, a translucent screen popped up in front of him.


    ''Hmm... there''s no need for anythingplicated right from the start.'' he thought as he made up a simple quest and sent it to Sahoy who was the user of the system.


    [Quest Delivered]


    [Quest Details: Have sex with three women in a week. For each extra woman you sleep with after reaching 3, you''ll get an additional reward of 5 braks. If you reach 10 under the time limit, you''ll receive an extra Zen on top of 5 braks.]


    It was pretty pricey, but to Keith, it was a small price to pay if he could get Sahoy to hit the limits of the system. As for whether the guy would be able to do it in under a week or not, was a different matter altogether.


    As he closed the system screens that were in front of him, a new one popped up with a warning message.


    [Failure in delivering the promised rewards will result in the return of the tax you''ve taken from the user.]


    ''....'' he silently stared at it for a few seconds before closing it, ''Well, not like I ever nned on scamming people.''


    As the two of them walked, Amelia finally spoke up.


    "You... I mean, do you respect your brother inw?"


    "Hm? Well... I didn''t really interact with him a lot but so far he''s been a great help. Is there something wrong?" he asked, trying to probe her for information.


    Unfortunately for him, she just shook her head, "Not really. Anyways, you should expect a lot of clients knocking on our doorsteps from now on."


    "Is there a reason for that? Don''t tell me that some kind of mysterious political war is brewing up in our Auberg district."


    "No no, nothing like that happens here. In fact, it''s the exact opposite. We don''t have many noble families here, and even the Empire''s squadron of soldiers that reside here are among the worst of the worst.


    Due to this, there have been gang wars for the past four decades but now, there''s only two left. There is news that yesterday night, the leader of one of the two gangs was poisoned and killed.


    Apparently, his people took him to the church of medicine, but they were unable to bring a dead man back to life. Once his death was confirmed, his younger brother took over as the leader and this one is a psychotic man.


    He''s done a lot of evil deeds and unlike his brother who cared for his people, this guy only cares about usurping the Auberg district and gaining full control. If it gets to this stage, then the churches will have to step in. Which means that we must do it too."


    "I really hope that something like this doesn''t happen." he said, but on the inside, his thoughts were churning as he connected the dots.


    When Norn died, Keith didn''t exactly get a notification about the aplishment of revenge as the gang''s leader hadn''t died yet. On the other hand, if he was poisoned, then the scenario made more sense but it still didn''t make much sense to him as he felt like there was some inconsistency in the poisoning story.


    ''If the gang leader was actually poisoned and didn''t die before Norn''s death, then there was no way I''d be able to feel the increase in potency of my system gacha wheel. And if he died before Norn, then I should have gotten the notification of the Revenge being sessful.'' he thought as a crease formed on his forehead.


    ''That only leaves one possibility. The gang leader must have died the same exact moment that Norn did, but this is just- the probability is extremely low unless....''

 Chapter 23: Shooting Practice

    ''That only leaves one possibility. The gang leader must have died the same exact moment that Norn did, but this is just- the probability is extremely low unless Norn met Silver Thread.'' he thought as he recalled a secretive character from the novel managed to stay alive until the end of the novel.


    ''It''s better to not get involved with Silver for now. He''s a scary psycho.'' he mentally reminded himself.


    The two of them continued to walk, but Keith began to pant even though it was very slight panting. Amelia on the other hand, seemedpletely fine as she cheerfully walked forward.


    It took them a total of one hour to reach the church and Amelia confidently strode over to the right and entered the building through a "staff only" door while Keith silently followed behind her.


    The two of them walked along the corridors until they reached a staircase which went down.


    As he climbed down, he voices out his thoughts, "Underground... is this some kind of secretive thing?"


    While he did know about the churches, the novel never talked about the internal structure of the churches as most of the conflicts and fights happened in the outside world.


    "It''s not exactly secretive, but only official members of the church can enter." she said and pointed at the ring she was wearing, "This one is only given to official members and if you don''t have one, you won''t be able to open the door that we walked in from"


    "Interesting and impressive." hemented as he got off the stairs and entered another corridor. Unlike the one above, this corridor was three times as wide. At both ends of the corridor, were two doors each and in front of him, where the corridor ended, was another door.


    In total, there were only five doors, but the corridor itself was about five hundred meters long. As they walked, Amelia began to exin.


    She pointed at the first two doors that were parallel to each other while on the opposite sides, "The left one here is the library, so if you''re free and wish to read stuff, then you cane here. The one on the right is a training room. Brandon and Edward use this one a lot."


    Then she continued walking forward until she reached the other set of parallel doors, "This one is the artefact storage area, but it''s mostly empty. Even staffs like us are not allowed to enter but Brandon can as he''s the head detective." she said as she pointed at the left door.


    And she walked towards the door on the right and opened it before walking in, "And wee to the shooting range, woooo! Now give me five bullets, or five braks."


    Keith nodded as he inwardly sighed and took out the small wooden box that his sister had given him. He opened the lid and saw the bullets neatly stacked. In total, there were 30 bullets with five rows and six columns.


    He took five bullets out and gave them to Amelia before grabbing five for himself. He then grabbed his revolver from inside his trench coat and pushed the ammo barrel out so he could load it.


    The revolver he had was smaller than regr revolvers issued by the empire or the other churches. It had a slightly shorter barrel and could only hold five bullets in it''s cylinder, but this was enough for Keith.


    The shooting range was prettyrge, but there were a lot of things missing such as ear muffs and gloves. Luckily, the most necessary item was avable, which was the target boards.


    He quickly loaded his gun and took aim as Amelia watched. After aligning the front and rear sights, he pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the target board, but it wasn''t on the bullseye.


    "Wow, you''re a natural at this. Did the guy who sold you this weapon teach you how to use it?"


    Even though this was not the case, Keith nodded, "I guess."


    After saying that, he gave his pistol to Amelia, "Let''s swap for a bit. I want to try out a manual one."


    "Wait what? Manual? No wait wait wait! Don''t tell me... this revolver is the famed double action revolver?!" she yelped as she excitedly asked him and seeing her like this, made him smile a little.


    "Yeah. So, do you want to swap or not?"


    "Of course!" she said without any hesitation and took his gun before giving her own weapon to him.


    While she excitedly skipped over to the right end of the room, Keith popped open the bullet barrel and saw five chambers filled while one was kept empty. He then popped the cylinder back in and got into position.


    He aimed at the target and used his thumb to pull the hammer that was at the back of the gun. He had expected it to be easy, but reality hit him hard as he was unable to pull it backpletely with just his thumb.


    ''.... just how weak am I? Fucking hell...''


    Feeling slightly depressed, he stared at the gun for a few seconds before using his left hand''s entire strength to pull back the hammer instead of just his thumb. This time he didn''t feel too much resistance.


    ''Yeah, maybe I just need some getting used to.'' he thought and aimed at his target one more time before shooting.


    BANG!


    The bullet left the barrel while his hand flew diagonally backwards due to the recoil.


    "Oh god..." he muttered as he popped open the cylinder once again and noticed that the thickness of these bullets was slightly more than the ones he had brought with him.


    ''Ah, makes sense now.''


    A second ago, he felt a bit too much recoilpared to his own gun and the difference in the size of bullet made sense.


    ''If I learn how to use this, then using mine will be way easier. Just like dad said when I was young, learn how to drive an old squeaky car and you''ll be able to drive almost every normal car in the future.

 Chapter 24: Stocking Up

    Keith happily used up all the bullets and walked over to Amelia so he could exchange his bullets for hers.


    "Oh, okay." she said and took out a small piece of paper which looked simr to the newspaper token that Keith had bought earlier in the day.


    "Take this to the room that''s at the end of the corridor. There''ll be an old guy there and all you have to do is give this to him." she said looked at the gun she was holding, "You know, this thing barely has any recoil and that''s what makes these bullets so valuable."


    Keith gave her a confused look, and she immediately gave him an exnation, "Adam is well known in the noble circles and churches. The bullets that he produces have extremely low recoil, which makes them very useful in the hands of experienced shooters. If someone finds out that we''re using them to practice... they''ll curse our ancestors."


    She then let out a chuckle, "But, that''s the advantage of having connections. If you give your bullets to the old man in that room, he''ll give you double the amount of same sized bullets."


    "Thanks."


    He then walked out of the shooting range and went straight to the end of the corridor before knocking on the door.


    "Come in." he heard a voice and walked in. Just like Amelia had said, there really was an "old looking" man, but he was way too short. He seemed youthful, but his wrinkly face just made him look old.


    "Hahahaha, you don''t have to stare so hard." he said as heughed and the next second his skin moved and began to straighten up until it wasn''t wrinkly anymore. This just stayed for two seconds before his skin turned wrinkly again.


    The guy smiled at Keith and said, "Just a side effect of having the ability to change my facial appearance. Anyways, I heard that youngss a few minutes ago so maybe you''re here to get some bullets?"


    "Yes."


    "Great. I assume that you''re using a flintlock?"


    Keith shook his head, "No, a revolver. The bullets that I need are the ones that Amelia usually gets, but I also do need the ones that follow the Empire''s standards and measurements."


    After saying that, he took out the box of bullets that he had and emptied it into his palm before handing over all the 20 remaining bullets to the guy in front.


    "My brother inw is Adam and these bullets were made by him. In exchange, I wish to have thirty six of the bullets that Amelia''s revolver needs and four of the same size as these." he added as he put the empty box back into his inner pocket.


    "Hmm, you really must learn the names of these bullets you know? But before that, I must introduce myself. I have given up my actual name and currently go by storekeeper. As for the names of these bullets... it''s based on where the bullets originated from or their destructive effects.


    The ones that war church uses are basically just call the war church''s bullets as they''re only produced by the war church. The empire''s bullets are called the Kazak bullets and the ones that Amelia uses are actually the hunter''s bullets as they''re mostly used to hunt animals.


    The revolver she uses is also a hunting variant of the empire''s revolvers, but here''s a fun fact. The empire actually never made the weapon. The one that she carries is actually an artefact that she received through her dead grand father''s will two years ago.


    The hunting bullets are mostly used in hunting rifles, but her weapon is just a miracle."


    Keith listened to everything and nodded. While these bullets did have their own native names, the author of the novel had used normal terms such as 9mm, 10mm, etc so that the readers didn''t get confused.


    Even Keith hadn''t paid too much attention to the native names and now it bit him in his back.


    "Understood." he said, nodding as he digested the information which was actually very easy to remember.


    The Kazak bullet was basically the 9mm luger that was mostmonly used bullet/round in his old. The hunter''s bullet was 10mm, which had more recoil and power. It was the war church''s bullet that was more unique.


    Compared to 9mm luger, which had the diameter of 9mm and length of the case as 19mm, the war church''s bullet had a diameter of 8mm but the length of the case was at 25mm. This change allowed their bullets to have almost equal kic energypared to the 9mm counterpart.


    But in Keith''s eyes, the 9mm was still better as it had more diameter, which meant more damage area.


    After he made the calctions in his mind, he got a better understanding of the three types of bullets. He watched the storekeeper take a step back from the table that was between them.


    He walked towards one of the shelves and grabbed two boxes before bringing them to the table.


    "Thirty six hunters and four Kazak bullets." he muttered as he grabbed four bullets from one of the boxes and then he began to slowly count up to thirty six of the thicker bullets before putting them all in a group on the table.


    "Do you need anything to carry these in? Or will you just put them in your pocket?"


    Keith looked at the bullets and said, "I''m just practising, so I''ll keep them in my pocket."


    As he filled his outer pocket with the bullets, he thought about the money he had, which was 11 Zens and 32 Braks in total.


    After thinking about his money while looking at the box of bullets in front of him, he made up his mind and took out a silver zen note that had the number 1 printed on it along with a big nosed man''s face.


    Then, he grabbed a big 10 Brak coin from his leather pouch and ced it on the table along with the 1 Zen note.


    "By the way, I forgot to ask. How much does each bullet cost?"

 Chapter 25: Adams True Limits

    Keith practised his shooting skills and got used to the recoil of the hunter bullets before swapping weapons once again. He put his gun under his trench coat and left the church feeling confident about his shooting skills when it came to stationary targets.


    ''I''m not really sleepy... so I guess I''ll go visit the money church.'' he thought as he walked along the road.


    Unlike the other churches, the Money God''s believers had a strict hierarchy so he was confident that he''d be able to meet her as long as her awakened ability wasn''t too important.


    A few minutester, he silently walked into the church and looked at every single helper nuns who''s main job was to keep things clean in the church and to help people whoe to the church with minor things.


    But after looking at almost 20 nuns and monks, Keith frowned.


    ''Not here. Did she really have a great awakened ability?'' he thought, but then he walked to the confessional and talked about his brother joining the gangs and how it''s been negatively effecting him.


    All of it was bullshit, but he continued bbering for almost five whole minutes and stopped the moment he saw a familiar face. It was the same youngdy he had seen a day or so ago, but she wasn''t wearing the regr nun clothes.


    Instead, she wore a pure white tunic instead. Regr nuns wore a 90% ck tunic with some parts having white, like the ends of their sleeves. This was the case with every single church.


    The higher ranking Nuns like the priestesses wore pure white ones instead.


    ''So, it''s like this huh? Well, it''s a good thing that she wasn''t taken somewhere else.'' he thought as he began to act more and more depressed while also getting louder which easily caught the girl''s attention.


    After spouting even more bullshit for an extra minute, Keith took out a 5 brak coin and stopped right before putting it in the donation box.


    "Tch, this person in the confession booth didn''t help me at all!" he said out loud and put the coin back inside his pocket, but just as he was about to leave, he heard a sweet voice from the direction where he saw the girl at.


    "My child, if you desire, we can retire to a more private sanctuary where you may confide in me. Share your burdens without hesitation, for I am here to offer sce and guidance."


    Keith turned to look at her, ''Spoken like a true priestess... even though I''m kinda older than you...''


    "You... you''re a priestess?"


    The girl simply smiled and didn''t say anything. Seeing this, Keith shook his head and took out the 5 brak coin instead.


    "Oh Priestess, I feel like my soul has been healed by your presence already. Please take this measly offering from me." he said as he gave the coin to her and left with a smile on his face. Before exiting the building, he turned back and saw her holding the coin that had a slight glow to it.


    Then, with a slight smile, he left the ce and headed back to his sister''s house. On his way, he gave out a mentalmand.


    ''Set condition; Trigger the system the next time she is sexually involved with anyone.'' he gave out amand as he recalled the thing that most nuns were of the Money Church did.


    And that was to get money by sleeping with believers and higher ups for money. This was the mostmon method employed by both the male and female members of the church as the "act" did not need any mary investment.


    Once he got back home, he went straight to bed after asking his sister to save the food she made in the morning for him so he could eat it at night.


    ********


    After 2 hours of struggling to sleep and 5 hours of disturbed sleep, Keith work up with a grumpy look on his face. He smacked himself with a cold mug of water and put on his uniform before he sat on his bed with the revolver in his hand.


    He had bought a lot of 9mm rounds, also called the Kazak Bullets from the storekeeper. In total, with the 1 zen and 10 braks, which was just 30 braks, he had bought himself 30 bullets.


    The thing that was most surprising here, was that the hunter bullets cost only half of the kazak or war church''s bullets. And the reason for this was simple.


    It was easier to buy hunting riflespared to revolvers. Due to this, even the cost of the bullets was less.


    Unfortunately, the church''s exchange policy when it came to Adam''s bullets was that for every bullet, the storekeeper only had to give out 2 of any regr bullet.


    While Keith felt like he was scammed, he didn''t feel too bad as it was just 20 bullets worth.


    He then grabbed the box of bullets and inserted 4 of them into his gun before stashing the rest back in his pocket. Once he was ready, he headed to the kitchen and ate all the food before leaving.


    But just as he was wearing his shoes, his sister rushed towards him and stuffed a package that was covered in paper and tied with a thread.


    "What''s this?"


    "Just take it and go. You told me that you used up all the bullets for practice right?" she said and patted his back.


    Keith simply stared at her silently, ''If only I had someone like her in my previous life... oh well, what''s done is done.''


    "Thanks sis, but just how many did you save up until now? I thought that Adam was supposed to give away his bullets to the empire."


    Reba nodded, "Yeah, but it isn''tpulsory. He''ll be forced to provide them bullets when it''s war time and now, it''s peaceful. Anyways the empire thinks that he can only create 12 bullets a day but in reality, he can make 30 each day.


    This is boosted to a total of 40 if he.... um makes love but it only works once a day. "

 Chapter 26: The Black Market

    Keith headed back to the Bar''s mansion and saw that Amelia was already there, talking to Brandon and Edward right outside the gates.


    "Hey guys, good evening." Keith greeted them.


    "Look who''s here... you''re too early by the way." Edwardmented when he saw Keith walking towards them.


    Keith nodded, "Well... it was hard to sleep when I already sleptst night. Anyways, I simply have to keep watch outside the Bar''s room right?"


    Brandon shook his head, "Not really. We let you go early, but now that you''re here, there''s something you must do." he said and paused for a second before continuing.


    "Well, the only thing you checked was ngson''s study room, so your job now is to look at every single room in the mansion and report to your senior, who in this case, is Amelia. Just tell her if you find something suspicious."


    "Understood." Keith said without thinking too much of it and looked at Amelia who was grinning from ear to ear, "You... wait I forgot that you were the junior until I got hired."


    The target hit the bullseye as Amelia expression warped to that of fury, but she didn''t say anything lest he counter her with another lewdment. Instead, she directed her frustration at Brandon.


    "Can''t we just transfer him to some other district? This kid is too disrespectful."


    Edward chucked while Brandonughed loudly, "You do know that he''s an year older than you right?"


    "I...."


    "It''s fine." Keith interrupted before the two guys in front of him angered the girl too much. He had to spend the rest of the night shift with her as his boss and he didn''t want an uncooperative partner.


    "When ites to work, age doesn''t matter. Isn''t that right, sir Edward?"


    "You''re right." Edward said, the yfulness in his voice gone as he looked at Keith with a serious look on his face, "We must learn when to act professional and when to act like friends."


    He then patted Keith''s shoulder before leaving and Brandon followed behind him as he stretched his back, letting out a satisfied grunt while doing so.


    Keith turned to look at Amelia and a yful smile popped up on his face, "Senior Amelia, I hope you can teach me a lot of things tonight."


    "Y- you! Stop making things sound so.... so suspicious!"


    "Hahahahaha sorry." he said as he walked in, thinking about ngson and the words he had said in the morning.


    A slight frown formed on his face as he recalled the information.


    ''He has connection to the ck market, so I''ll have to try to get some information from him. Once I do, I can give Adam a system and sell the bullets at the ck market.''


    He silently walked inside and began to scour through the entire mansion with a maid as a guide while Amelia stayed with ngson. It took him more than 5 hours to check every single room, but once he did, he let out a sigh.


    He looked at the butler who was standing in front of him and said, "Tell the oldest daughter of Sir ngson to meet us in the living room. There are quite a few things that I must ask her."


    Keith''s gaze the shifted to the maid who had been guiding him until now, "As for you... just bring the item that you have. Once you''re done, you''re free to leave."


    "Thank you, detective.... um."


    "Keith."


    "Yes, yes. Thank you, detective Keith."


    Keith simply nodded and headed towards the living room where Amelia and ngson were at. Once he got close, he heard a terrible sounding out of the room and from the notes that were being yed, it was obvious that someone was ying the piano.


    With an annoyed look on his face, he walked in and saw Amelia sitting in front of the piano with an extremely focused gaze.


    Keith pped twice and the two ps echoed in the room, which prompted the two of them to look in his direction.


    "I have news, but it''s not exactly good."


    "Just blurt it out, please? I was trying to learn this thing."


    Keith nced at the piano and sighed, "Maybe it''ll be better to learn somewhere else. If you continue, my ears are going to bleed."


    Before Amelia could say anything to counter him, he continued, "Anyways... Sir ngson, I feel like your daughter might be in danger. Almost every single thing in her room gave me urge to leave the room."


    "There''s also one object that''s on the same level as the skull that we saw in the study room." he said as his gaze shifted to Amelia.


    ngson thought about Keith''s words for a second before speaking, "My daughter attends a lot of parties hosted by the other bars. Maybe it''s from them?"


    "That''s possible, but there could also be other reasons." Amelia said as she got off her chair and walked towards the tea table where the maid had just ced a small fountain pen. She picked it up and looked at Keith, "Is this the one?"


    He nodded in response and looked at ngson, "By the way... this ck market. What kind of ce is it? And how do you get an entry?"


    "It''s just a regr market but some illegal things are sold there. There''s also a lot of stolen items sold for cheap. As for getting an entry... this is not really a secret society kind of thing. It''s avable to the public as long as you know where to go.


    You simply have go to that theatre that''s behind the God of Money''s Church and as long as you have enough money, or something valuable, they''ll let you in. Just make sure that you''re wearing a in y mask that''s painted white."


    Keith nodded as he began to make his ns. There was no need for him to wait for too long if he wanted to visit the ck market.


    ''I''ll just go see how things work there and start my business once I get Adam''s awakened ability.''

 Chapter 27: Youre My Bro!

    Amelia took care of talking to the girl, while Keith silently stood outside ngson''s bedroom. He didn''t have to wait for long as he saw her walk towards him with a tired look on her face.


    "She didn''t say it directly, but I can tell that she''s been getting involved with other noble kids. Haaa.... I have a feeling that she angered the wrong person and ngson isn''t the only one in danger here. We must share this information with the Brandon and the good news is that we don''t have to get involved in this case anymore.


    We technically have two clients and both of them seem to have gotten involved in something serious. If we continue, we''ll probably lose a member or two from our team and I''m sure that Brandon wouldn''t want that. He''ll most probably send a request to the neighbouring churches and ask them for help."


    She then sat down on the floor with her back against the wall, but just as Keith was about to follow her actions, he saw the door open slowly.


    Standing there was ngson''s wife, whose name he didn''t know yet, but his mouth slightly opened as he stared at her. He had never seen someone as bold as her in his entire life as she was standing in front of him while wearing an almost transparent lingerie.


    Keith could see everything as his eyes were now used to the small amount of light that the candles in the corridor were emitting. Even Amelia who was sitting on the floor, stared at the woman in shock.


    "Care to join me in my bed?" she whispered as she leaned in slightly, like the amount of exposure wasn''t enough.


    Keith immediately shook his head, "Respectfully, I apologise. I''m already engaged to this beautifuldy beside me and I would like to remain faithful to her."


    Surprisingly, Amelia went along with his story and stood up, "Well, if you want I can join you along with my fiance. Just so you know, I get very rough when ites todies."


    Maybe it was a secret code or maybe it was something that only the women understood, but when thedy heard Amelia''s words, she gave Keith an awkward smile and pushed the door slowly.


    "Would you do me a favour and keep this a secret?"


    Amelia answered for Keith, "Sure."


    Once the door closed, Keith let out a sigh of relief.


    "Thanks." he whispered and sat down on the floor while Amelia walked towards him. Instead of sitting on the other side of the door, she sat directly beside him.


    "Are you alright?" she asked worriedly, and Keith nodded, "Yeah... just reminded me of someone."


    "Oh... wait, you have no reaction?!" she eximed, still whispering as she did so, but her eyes were on his crotch.


    Keith didn''t know what do say, so he chuckled instead, "Is itmon to stare at men''s crotches?"


    "I mean, you''re wearing a pant over it so I''m sure that I can''t really see anything. But oh god... don''t tell me you''re impotent. Wait no, it makes sense. You''re the only one who didn''t stare at me like an idiot when you met me.


    Also, it''s night time right now and my ability seems to have no effect on you. Do you not even see me as a woman?!" she asked, utterly bbergasted at theck of reaction from Keith.


    Hearing her words, he sighed loudly, not knowing how to exin. He thought for a few seconds and decided to keep it simple.


    "Listen, I have different preferences. Most guys like slender... petite, delicate and um... lean girls, but I have different tastes. If I must take an example... the princess of Morose Kingdom is more of my type." he said.


    The princess of Morose would be killed in a few years, but Keith had seen her character art. If there was any important character who was as pretty and "well-gifted" as her, then it would be a woman who was a major antagonist.


    But her mentality and character was warped to the point of no return as she was extremely evil. And unlike her, the princess of Morose, was just unlucky and made a bunch of bad decisions.


    Amelia heard him and frowned as she silently stared at the floor in front of her beforementing, "So... that''s the reason why you look at ra so differently. You... you do know that romance between work colleagues will only cause problems to the team right?"


    "Yeah, I know." he nodded, "That''s the reason why I hold back and don''t actively try to talk to her a lot. I''m confident that with my looks, a lot of women will line up. Mrs ngson is a prime example."


    Hearing his words, she sighed as she didn''t know how to refute him. It was true that he was handsome and from just one look, it was very obvious that as long as Keith gained some muscle, then he would be almost irresistible to the women.


    "Well, don''t worry. I''ll act as your fiance to protect you. It''s my job as a senior."


    Keith nodded, "Thanks. Just don''t get too into the role though... I already told you my preferences and it''ll be awkward if you know... if you start having feelings."


    "Hah? Who do you think I am? I get flowers and gifts almost every week. There''s a bunch of men wanting to take me on a date and there''s also a lot of people trying to jump directly into a marriage. What made you think that you''re better than them?"


    Keith put his arm around her shoulder, "Ay ay, don''t worry I was just joking. You''re very easy to get along with, so you''re somewhat like a bro to me."


    "Bro? what does that even... did you mean brother?!!" she whispered loudly as she pinched his sided.


    "Oiiii, I mean it in a good way!" he eximed as he pinched her back after seeing that she wasn''t letting go.


    Once she got a taste of her own medicine, she red at him like he had wronged her but Keith took this chance to exin himself.


    "What I mean is that you''re like a great friend to me. It''s only been a day or two, but it''s alwaysfortable talking to you and I can just be myself. Do you understand now?"

 Chapter 28: Priestess Arias Awakened Ability

    Keith and Amelia simply talked for the whole night. It was mostly Amelia talking about nobles, their habits and they way they talk to people. She also took this time to teach him more about etiquette.


    Once the sun came up, the two of them headed back to the church as ra took over for them until Brandon and Edward arrived. They had ryed their findings to her, so they didn''t have anything else to worry about.


    "So, are you going to practice shooting today too?" she asked as she walked into the church and Keith nodded in response.


    "Yeah, but before that, I must grab some food."


    Amelia turned to look at him, "Well... the church offers free food. Though, I don''t really like the taste. It''s mostly made for the knights and pdins, so it''s healthy but the taste doesn''t suite my pte."


    "Oh miss noble woman likes to eat only high quality steak." he said, imitating ngson''s way of speaking.


    In response, she just red at him and humphed, "Just wait until you taste that thing... Ugh. It''s unbearable. Let me take you there."


    After saying that, she backtracked and walked out of the church building before heading to the training area which was at the back of the church. Most of the are was taken up by muscr men who were wearing minimal clothing, but on one side, there was a long table which had huge pots ced on top of it.


    She pointed at the table and said, "It''s there. Just grab a te and eat what you want to."


    Then she paused for a second before putting her hand in her pant''s pocket and took out a small folded piece of paper.


    "Since I feel a little bad for you, I''ll let you use this. It''s salt."


    "Oh okay, thanks." he said and rushed to the table before grabbing a te.


    The first pot had t bread, but when Keith grabbed one and took a good look at it, the only thing it reminded him of, was naan from India and Pakistan. As for whether the process of making it was the same here or not, he did not know.


    He simply grabbed five of them and put them on his te before moving on to the next pot which had mashed potatoes. Keith already had Naan as a source of carbohydrates, so he skipped the potatoes and moved on to the next pots.


    One by one, he slowly filled up his te and by the time he was done, he had a total of only four different dishes.


    Naan, raw vegetables, a bunch of roasted chicken pieces andstly, there was a small mound rice cooked with lentils.


    Keith then grabbed a ss of milk and walked back to Amelia who took him to a stone b before sitting down. He simply followed her and sat down before digging into his food.


    Unfortunately, just like Amelia had said, the food tasted terrible as it barely had any seasoning. With a sigh, he looked up at Amelia who gave him the look that said, "I win, bitch."


    "Well, food is food." he said and unfolded the small paper packet before sprinkling some salt into his food. The taste was still terrible, but Keith pushed through as he wished to get his muscles as soon as possible.


    Once he was done, he went back for seconds and did a total of four trips until he couldn''t eat anymore.


    "You... why are you doing this to yourself?"


    "Brandon told me to get buff, didn''t he. I''m trying to do just that... ugh. Oh man, I just want to sleep right here... I don''t think I can walk back home like this."


    He sounded miserable, but when Amelia looked at his bulging belly, she couldn''t do anything but shake her head in disappointment.


    While she was thinking about how to change his mind about eating so much food, she heard him speak.


    "Hey... is there something that I can carry in my pockets? I just want something that is portable, so that I can eat anytime."


    She looked at him like she was seeing a brainless idiot, but answered him anyway, "Well, there''s jerky, dried fish, hard cheese and even dry fruits work. You can also carry some fresh vegetables which you can eat raw, like tomatoes and carrots."


    Keith nodded as he thought about it let out a burp before giving her a satisfied smile, "Yeah, that. That just gave me a lot of room in my stomach. Though, I think I''m done with food for now."


    He got back up on his feet after a slight effort and then headed back home, intending to hit the bed the moment he walks into his room but just as he was walking, he saw a system screen appear in front of his face.


    Protection System activated.


    Trigger: When user is sexually involved with anyone


    System''s Goal: Avoid Danger 50 times.


    The protection system worked simr to Keith''s danger sense ability, but instead of the body reacting to danger, the system simply showedyer of coloured aura around a person.


    From white to blue to red to ck, with the threat level increasing from white to ck.


    He didn''t really care about the system goal as things would eventually happen and there was no need for him to give out a quest to her. Instead, he directly went for taxes.


    He gave out a mentalmand and a new system screen appeared in front of him.


    Protection System


    User: Priestess Aria


    Capabilities: Enables the user to actively see the threat levels of people based on their actions.


    System Tax: Physical money; 4 Chron, Modified copy of Aria''s awakened ability, or inheritance of user''s physical ability.


    Keith picked Aria''s awakened ability without any hesitation and instantly felt regret as her ability did not help withbat in any way.


    ''Libido and Sensitivity maniption.... what am I a gigolo? I don''t n on sleeping around so this thing is absolutely useless...'' he grumbled inwardly, but then he also wasn''t too disappointed.


    ''Well... if I do get someone, it''ll be pretty useful and fun. But damn, I wanted an increase inbat capability or at least something that gave me the power to protect myself."''

 Chapter 29: Artificial System Progress

    It was slightlyte but Keith suddenly realised something. The system said that it was a modified version of Aria''s awakened ability and this genuinely awed him.


    ''The libido control aside... I could technically use the sensitivity control to increase my target''s sense of pain. This way, even if my punchesck strength, it''ll make them feel like they''re getting hit by a truck... hehehehe I''m liking this more and more.''


    The smile on his face couldn''t be hidden as he went back to his room and took of his uniform. He directly jumped into the bed as he opened up Sahoy Tahini''s yboy system and when he saw the progress, he was left bewildered.


    "Wow... it has only been like, one day and this guy already hit the 5 mark." he muttered and saw a red warning sentence under the rewards message.


    Seeing this, he sighed and grabbed his leather pouch before taking out his 10 Zen note. He didn''t feel like parting with it, but he shook his head and gave out a mentalmand.


    The instant he did, the note in his hand disappeared and a new system announcement popped up.


    [Would you like to convert the currency to other denominations?]


    ''Yes. Keep a total of 55 braks with you and give the rest back to me. I need them in 1 zen notes and the rest can be in 1 brak coins.'' he said mentally and the system screen disappeared for a second before a seven notes fell to the bed along with five brak coins.


    He put the money inside his leather pouch before changing the systems from yboy to Protection system.


    He stared at the system screen for a while, not knowing what kind of quest to give. There was no reason to give her any quest as things would just happen eventually, but letting her keep the system for a long time would only hurt Keith''s profits as he wouldn''t receive anything from her after this.


    ''Before I do anything drastic, it''s better to check out what kind of person she is and the stuff she usually does.'' he thought as he summoned his system again and this time, a slight white glow emanated from his body as he gave out an order.


    ''Give me the information on what she did from the time she got the system. In text format.''


    The moment he gave out themand, a long wall of text began form in front of him and he watched it happen with a slight smile on his face.


    ''Oh man, this is essentially stalking but I don''t really n on harming you with this.'' he said to himself as he thought about the priestess and began to read the wall of text which looked more like a detailed diary entry.


    At first, his face was neutral, but the more he read, the more disgusted he looked. Once he was done reading everything, he let out a sigh.


    "So they had contact with her way before her parents gave her away... these damn groomers. She''s long gone now, toote for me to help and even if I try, she''ll most certainly report me instead. Haaa... I feel like shit." he grumbled as he stared at the ceiling.


    Seconds quickly trickled by and Keith let out one final sigh as he made up his mind.


    ''I''ll make things quick and cut my ties with this girl.''


    [Quest Delivered]


    [Quest Details: Walk around the city five times to get a sense for your new ability. Do not wear your holy clothes and use civilian clothes instead.]


    [Failure to do this quest will result in the user''s death.]


    Keith then wore his normal shirt and pants before putting on the trench coat that was provided by the protection church. He put his hand under his trench coat and felt his revolver safely lying there.


    ''I''ll trigger the dangers myself. All I need to do is have the intent to murder her and hopefully, her system will tell her to run away.'' he thought as he walked out of the room and went straight to the shop that sold masks.


    It was a small hawker stall, so Keith had to crouch down to take a good look at the masks that were ced on the cloth that was on the ground. He grabbed two y masks and looked up at the kid who seemed like he was barely 13 years old.


    "How much?"


    ''Two braks for one mask, sir. If you buy three, I can sell them to you for four braks.'' he said confidently, to which Keith simply nodded before he went back to look for another mask.


    He looked around for a few seconds before he directly grabbed a 5 brak coin and gave it to the kid, "Here, I like these two masks but I don''t like the others. Keep the change, kid."


    Before the kid could say anything, Keith stood back up and walked away. The boy then looked around to see if there was anyone who was looking at him, and then packed up his things before he ran back home.


    Keith continued to look at his system screen that was showing him Aria''s location through text and he silently walked to one of the roads. Soon, he got a chance to wear his mask as there was no one who had an eye on him.


    Once he did, he stopped at the side of the street and leaned back against the wall before taking out the newspaper that he had bought in the morning. He acted like he was reading it, but his eyes were on the system screen that was leaking information about her location.


    ''She''ll be here in just a minute.'' he thought and saw the headlines on the newspaper. As he was turning the pages to find something interesting, he saw a familiar face appear a hundred meters away.


    He stopped reading his newspaper and grabbed his revolver that was inside his trench coat while staring at her.


    The image of him shooting her in the head formed in his mind and the moment it did, the girl stopped walking. She stood where she was for a second before running away.


    Keith grinned, "Looks like it''s working."

 Chapter 30: Unexpected Returns

    Aria was happily roaming around the church when she saw a familiar system screen appear in front of her eyes. She had seen it recently, but didn''t understand what it even was as the only thing that it said was that she now had the ability to see a person''s threat level through colours.


    In the church, there were many male and females that had the colour of dark blue, almost on the verge of violet. There were also some who had orange and redyer of aura.


    But this was mostly useless to her as she already knew about these people as she had joined them in a certain "Holy Ritual". While it sounded shady, she still trusted these people and joined them.


    This happened for more than a year before her parents gave her away to the church in the name of god. By then, her mind and psyche about the so-called rituals was positive.


    But now that she got the system, she began to believe in her subconscious feeling more than what she just saw through her eyes or heard from her ears. All the sweet talks that the priests and high priests gave her fell to deaf ears after she got the system.


    To her, this was a gift from god, and the quest announcement in front of her only screamed one thing.


    ''The holy one wishes to test my belief.'' she thought excitedly as she rushed to her quarters and quickly changed into civilian clothes. Once she was done, she didn''t bother with anything else and walked out of the church to roam the district.


    Everything went fine at first as the people she saw, mostly had white aura or aura with various shades of blue. But things changed after a few minutes of walk. She saw a man reading a newspaper but as she got close, she saw him lower his hands.


    This was the time when she slowed down as she saw that he was wearing a mask and masked people were mostly bad news.


    The aura around him was white at the start so she continued walking, but the color quickly changed. It went from blue, to orange, to red and finally, stopped at a dark shade of red which almost looked like it was ck.


    When Aria saw this, the first thing that she did was to turn around and run as fast as she could. After a few seconds of intense running, she turned around and saw that no one was following her, which made her sign in relief.


    But she still felt uneasy.


    ''God''s gift will help me out. I just have to walk around.'' she thought to herself as she steeled her mind and walked in a different direction.


    Unfortunately for her, after five minutes of walk, she saw the same man walking towards her from the front and this time, there was no colour change in his aura as it was red from the start.


    Thanks to her "God''s Gift" she turned around and ran, losing the masked man once again before heading to another ce but this time, she picked a crowded ce.


    But yet again, after a few minutes, she saw the same guy standing on the side of the street while leaning against the building''s wall. This time, she didn''t run away and used the cover of multiple people in the crowded market street to walk away from him.


    Once she got out of the crowded street, she walked into a nearby alleyway that connected to anotherrge street but while she was halfway past the alleyway, she heard a sound behind her.


    It was rough and gritty, but also had a certain youthful feeling to it which gave her the feeling that the gritty voice was made deliberately to hide their actual voice.


    "I... I''m a priestess from the Church of God of Money. You''ll be marked as a sinner if you harm me."


    He had two options. One was to attack her and the other one was to rob her as these were the only two things that could justify his previous actions. He didn''t wish to actually hurt her, but taking some money was something he didn''t mind as long as he could let her go without any suspicion.


    As for other options, Keith just wasn''t able to process them at the moment.


    "Hmm..." Keith hummed as he got closer to her, "Well, give me all your money and I''ll let you go."


    "Do you swear on the Money God Mammon that you won''t harm me if I give you my money?" she asked while shivering slightly.


    Keith did not expect her to get this scared so he took a step back, "Sure. I just want money. Empty all of your pockets and ce the money on the ground. Then you''re free to leave and I won''t do anything."


    Aria silently nodded and grabbed the small leather pouch that was tied around her waist before putting it beside her on the ground. Once she did that, she took a step forward and stopped.


    "Please don''t attack me."


    "I won''t, just go."


    The moment Keith told her to go, she did and she did it extremely fast. Keith silently watched her run away and once she was out of his sight, he took the leather pouch and took out all the money that was inside before tossing it away.


    ''Her leather pouch is of a higher qualitypared to mine, but using it would just raise suspicion.'' he thought as he put the money he just got in his pocked before walking away. He then entered a random empty alleyway and took off his mask before heading to a smoked meat shop which was quite far from his sister''s house.


    On the way, he slowly took out the money that he had just robbed and saw three golden yellow Chron notes. Each one of them had the number 1 on them, but Keith was in awe just from the color of the note.

 Chapter 31: Injured Brandon

    ''A currency that is considered to be used only by the nobles and rich families.... I feel sorry for her, but oh well... I''ll make good use of this.'' he thought as he put the three notes in his inner pocket before he began to count the silvery grey Zen notes.


    ''-even eight and nine... damn she''s rich. I should probably be a priest...'' he thought to himself before shaking his head, ''Nah I''d rather not sell my soul and body just for money.''


    "A total of three chrons and ny Zens. Oh well, going for her directly will simply cause me trouble if I continue doing it. I''ll have to find other ways... and maybe I''ll take a look at the ck market. If possible, I''ll issue a bounty on her."


    His walking pace increased until he reached the smokery. The ce didn''t have any customers at the moment, and the shop was pretty small. It was merely a 5m x 5m room that had multiple cloth sacks filled with various jerky.


    On top of each sack was a thin wooden board with prices written on them.


    Keith took a look at each and every one of them before looking at the older woman who was sitting on a worn out stool.


    "Can I try each one of them before I decide on buying one?"


    After hearing his words, she nodded, "Only if you promise me that you''ll buy. If none of them are to your liking, then pay me one brak and leave."


    "Thanks." he said and began to eat the different types of jerky. The shop only had beef, pork and chicken jerky, but there were different types of each animal.


    Keith simply ate each one of them to get a feel for their texture and taste as he noted down the ones he liked. It took him around 5 minutes to make up his mind.


    "Miss, I''ll buy two kilos of pork loin jerky and hmm... I guess I''ll buy another kilo of top round beef jerky." he said as he pointed a the two different jerky that he wanted.


    The woman stared at him for a second before hastily shaking her head, "That''ll be two zens young man, are you sure?"


    "Absulutely!" Keith responded with a smile, making the woman shake her head. She then silently grabbed threerge tin cans and carefully measured the weights.


    Once everything was perfect, she grabbed an extra handful of jerky for each type and tossed it in before she took out three tin lids that perfectly fit the tin cans.


    She then tossed the tin cans into arge cloth bag and gave it to Keith, "Here you go."


    "Thank you." Keith replied and gave her two zen notes before leaving the shop.


    He didn''t have anything else to do for the day and he was feeling slightly sleepy, so he went back home and plopped onto the bed directly. He woke up almost ten hourster and freshened up before he headed to the ngson Mansion.


    To his surprise, there were a bunch of police patrolling around the mansion and this included his brother inw, who waszily picking his nose while staring at the opposite side of the street.


    Keith went straight to Adam, "What''s going on?"


    "Oh you''re here. I didn''t tell Reba about this because well... you know how she gets when ises to safety. Anyways, someone attacked this ce a few hours ago and the knights from the Church of Protection are inside the gate.


    I don''t even know why they want us here when they can do everything on their own. Oh yeah, the important part. Your boss wants you to head back to your headquarters as your job here is done."


    "Is that so..." Keith muttered as he looked up at the mansion and then sighed, "Okay, thanks. I''ll head there."


    Adam nodded and patted Keith''s shoulder, "Take care of yourself, okay? If something happens to you, Reb will be a huge mess."


    "Understood, but well... you do know what kind of job I''m in right?"


    "Yeah, being a sheriff is rtively safer but I do know what your job is all about. Anyways, I''ll see you in the morning, yeah?"


    "Yup. See ya Adam."


    Keith then rushed to the inn and the first thing he saw was Brandon sitting on his desk with a thickyer of bandage wrapped around his arm.


    "Was it that serious?" Keith asked as he took a step inside and closed the door behind him.


    Edward nodded, "Exploding bullets... never seen one of those in my entire life. Looks like there''s someone new in town. We were lucky to have ra''s protection, but even with that, there was a limit to how much damage Brandon could take.


    His stone skin got absolutely destroyed and if the guy''s revolver hadn''t run out of bullets, then there was no way we could have survived. Anyways, now that the bad news is out of the way, let me tell you the good stuff.


    The church from the capital has sent out one of their inquisitors to take care of this case. The danger was too much and since we technically did protect Sir ngson, we received out bonuses."


    Keith nodded as he nced at the others in the room, only to see every single one of them other than ra grinning like idiots. Even though ra wasn''t grinning, she still had a smile on her face.


    "Just why are you guys so... how do I put this, happy?"


    Hearing his question, Brandon chuckled before pointing at ra, "Why don''t you exin?"


    "Yes sir." she replied and looked at Keith, "Sir Brandon was indeed attacked and yes, he did sustain injuries. But we must look at the bright side. The important thing is that he survived."


    Edward nodded, "Right. Both of you, listen to me." he said as he pointed at both Keith and Amelia, "No one knows when we''ll die. Most of our jobs are mildpared to the Bar''s case, but there is always a chance for things to go wrong.


    I''ve seen eight of my colleagues die right in front of me... and well, it''s important to celebrate the fact that we survived instead of crying over an injury that will heal over time."

 Chapter 32: Shes Engaged?

    [A/N: Not including the debate cuz it''ll feel like filler. It won''t have a much of an impact on the story, so it''s better to get to the slightly more important parts. Also, for those few readers that I have currently; Thank you for reading andmenting, it is one of the few things that keeps me motivated.]


    Keith had a small debate about life and how to live while having a dangerous job which took a few minutes of everyone''s time. While it was a slightly heated debate, it was fun.


    Edward punched Keith in his gut, making him hunch forward even though he didn''t put too much strength into his punch.


    "That''s more than enough for now. From what I can see, you''re fine with enjoying life the way it is so there''s no need to be so stuck up about forcing Brandon to be careful. Anyways, here''s your share of the bonus that we received." he said and stuffed a few notes into his pocket.


    Keith silently plopped himself on the couch beside Amelia and took some time to recover before taking out the money to count the amount he had received.


    ''-thirty seven, thirty eight, thirty nine and forty...'' he counted mentally and then turned to look at the person whom he talked to the most in this team.


    "So, we got 4 Chrons as a bonus?" Keith asked and she shook her head, "Two Chrons, a total of 100 Zens. You got forty, ra got twenty five, Brandon took eighteen, Uncle Ed got ten and well.... I only got eight."


    Keith listened to her, but he could tell that the distress she showed was just an act. He ignored her rants and nced at the others before sping his hands together, "Well, since our great head detective survived like a real man, don''t you guys think that this calls for an celebration?"


    "Nah, there''s no need to waste any money." Brandon said as he put his hand in his pocket, but Amelia who seemed to have something against him for a long time, didn''t let him go, "Hah, you stingy bastard! You took eighteen Zen and you don''t want to spend even one on your beloved team? What kind of head detective are you?"


    Before Brandon could respond, Keith ced his palm on Amelia''s head and pushed her down slightly, "I never said he had to pay, it''s my treat. Consider it a.... what do I even call it? Oh well, I''m spending money today in celebration of receiving a huge bonus and also for our head detective who survived."


    Edward chuckled, "Hahahaha, don''t worry about it kid. We''ll make this stingy bastard cough out his bonus. Today we drink until we pass!!"


    "Hell yeahhh!!!" Amelia jumped up along with ra and the two of them rushed out of the room first.


    "Haaa... that Amelia is such a pain in my ass." Brandonined and looked at Edward, "And why are you taking her side all the time, this is just unfair."


    Edward shrugged, "She reminds me of my daughter. Also, you shouldn''t be the one who''s talking you know? You literally slept in front of her house, trying to win her heard after she rejected you."


    "I... can we not talk about that?" he said, his voice slightly less loudpared to before as he nced at Keith who was smiling.


    "What are you smirking for?"


    Keith blinked, silent for a second as he was caught off guard "Well, I think you two will be a great pair."


    "I''m buying you some top quality whisky today." Brandon said as he walked out of the room, unable to hide his smile.


    Edward looked at Keith and motioned him to follow him out and as they walked out, he asked, "Amelia is a fine girl you know? Why don''t you try your shot at her? From what I can tell, she-"


    "I''ve got different tastes, sir. I''d rather go for ra instead...." he said, not hiding much and this surprised Edward as he had never seen anyone pick ra over Amelia. Even without her night princess ability, she always had people look in her direction during the day while ra was mostly ignored.


    Even in gatherings, she would be called "the girl who walks around with Amelia" instead of her actual name and Edward who had seen this first hand, did not know how to respond.


    It took him a while to gather his thoughts and once he did, he smiled, "It''s a good thing I guess. After all, she barely gets any suitors but it''s a pity."


    "Huh? Why?" Keith asked, not understand what Edward was trying to say, but when he heard the next words of Edward, he felt his mind go nk for a second.


    "Well, she engaged and she''s got strong values and beliefs. So, I suggest you give up on her."


    "...." Keith said nothing for a while.


    Indeed, he didn''t really have ns on getting into a romantic rtionship with his coworker, but that didn''t change the fact that he had a slight crush on her. While he wasn''t too effected by the news, it still made him a little disheartened.


    "Understood." he said one word and silently followed the others until they reached a resto bar which was simr to the ce where Norn used to work. It had tables outside and inside but it also had specialpartments for customers if they wanted slightly better privacy.


    Brandon simply got one of thesepartments and ordered a bunch of food and drinks. He made sure to get premium whisky for Keith and low quality diluted gin for Amelia who began toin when she saw the dirty gin bottle ced in front of her when everyone else other than Keith had clean beer bottles in front of them.


    "Chill, I''ll share my drink with you. There''s no way I can drink so much." Keith said as he pushed his bottle towards her and looked at the waiter, "You can take back the gin bottle."


    Hearing this, Amelia perked up and started gossiping cheerfully while Keith was lost in his own thoughts as he absentmindedly stared at ra.

 Chapter 33: First Time

    All five of them leaned back against their chairs, their muscles loose as they chatted about random things that were going on in Auberg district. They stayed at the ce until midnight and spent a total of 2 Zen, which Brandon took care of.


    To Keith''s own surprise, he was the one who was unable to walk straight even though the others drank more than him. He took a few unstable steps to the front, the right and then trotted backwards before falling to the ground.


    "Oh god...." he said out loud and thenughed at himself for a good minute before closing his eyes.


    Amelia was the first one to notice that he was fast asleep and helped him up with ra''s help. But just as she was about to leave, she heard Brandon behind her.


    "Hey, you''ve been rejecting me for years! Why don''t youe to my house this night?"


    Hearing his words, she sighed as her eyes slowly focused on her surroundings, the alcohol in her body was quickly ejected out of the pores in her body like sweat.


    She then turned around to look at him, "If you change the way you went about women, maybe you''ll find someone who''d want to spend their life with you. I''ll only give my virginity to someone who wishes to marry me. It''s a simple thing but you''re still so stubborn."


    "Hey, life is fleeting. I don''t want to die like a dog, leaving my kids and wife without a father."


    "And that''s where our ideologies differ. I want a husband and you just want a nice one night stand." she retorted before leaving Brandon and Edward behind. Once the two of them carried Keith out, they stopped.


    ra looked at Amelia and let out a hup, "Hic. Should we just take him to our house?"


    "Yeah let''s do that..." Amelia responded with a serious expression on her face which she rarely showed, ''It''s better to keep him with uspared to leaving him in Adam''s house. I must find a way to tell Keith about him without sounding like an idiot.''


    As she thought about Adam and the Keith, the new friend she had made, she couldn''t help but sigh, ''Things would have been different if Keith wasn''t good looking. Looks like both of us were born with gifts that could turn into a curse at any time.''


    She then let out a wry smile as she thought about the past events. One guy who was in power just randomly fancied her which led to her being kicked out of her family.


    ''Even though father didn''t wish to, he had no choice. And now I must walk around without myst name.''


    ra who was on the other side, supporting Keith''s weight, heard Amelia sigh loudly and let out a slight knowing smile.


    "Are you thinking about the prince again?"


    "Bah, who''ll think about that asshole? I was just worried about Keith... and hmm." she paused and turned to look at the girl whom she considered as a big sister. The gears in her mind went on an overdrive as she nced at Keith who was clearly knocked out.


    Then she grinned, "Hey ra, do you really have to listen to your father and marry that ugly bar? I mean, he has two wives and seven concubines... it''s clear that he simply wants you for sexual purposes."


    "The marriage has been fixed and I will keep my promise to my father. I don''t really like that man, but I will do what I must. After all, I swore on Goddess Seraphina and I will honour it." she said adamantly, but Amelia had different thoughts.


    She nodded and agreed with ra before giving her an imaginary scenario, "Well, alright. But just in case you never promised anything, would you pick Keith or that Bar? I mean, just look at this guy... he might have a sly tongue, but he''s such a caring man. He''s also so damn good looking and he doesn''t have an ability simr to mine."


    Hearing her words, ra''s face went red as she nced at Keith.


    "Come on, answer me!"


    ".... I''ll pick Keith, but there''s no way he''d be okay with taking someone like me. My chest is too big and doesn''t look goodpared to yours, and even my backside isn''t any better. I might have an above average face, but there''s a reason why so many people rejected me even though I have such valuable awakened ability."


    Amelia grinned and was unable to control her facial expression as she pushed ra even more.


    "You know, yesterday during my shift with Keith, we talked about the kind of girls he likes. And guess what? He directly told me that he''d pick you over me and I was using my ability on him back then. Surprisingly, it had no effect on him, which means that he barely has any kind of sexual thoughts when ites to me." she said and paused before asking ra another question.


    "Do you know what that means?"


    "...."


    "You promised to marry that fat pig, but you never promised that you''ll stay faithful to him. At least not before your marriage. Why don''t you try your shot with Keith and see if he wants to do it or not? You should have some confidence in yourself."


    ra stayed silent and said nothing, to which Amelia sighed, thinking that she had failed. But the moment they brought Keith into their house, ra grabbed a ss of water and sprinkled some on Keith''s face.


    Keith didn''t not have much of a change as he simply frowned in his sleep. Seeing this, she was about to give up when Amelia grabbed the ss and poured all the contents on Keith''s face, waking him up in an instant.


    Seeing that it worked, she pushed ra onto Keith who was already on the floor and heard her whisper a few words to Keith while blushing hard.


    Keith, who was clearly intoxicated, stared at her for a few seconds and let out a silly smile.


    "Hehehe,e here then."

 Chapter 34: Adams Secret

    Keith woke up the next morning, but didn''t move one bit. He remembered most of the night and there was only one word to describe it; unforgettable.


    ''It''s a pity that she''ll be marrying some random guy just because she made a promise. Well, it''s her life and I don''t really know her well enough to try and stop her.'' he thought as he let out a slight sigh.


    "Oho look who''s awake."


    He heard the familiar voice and looked to his left, only to see Amelia smirking at him, "Come on now, you owe me a thank you."


    "You...." he began when he saw the dark circle under her eyes, "didn''t sleep did you?"


    "Of course not. Not with the amount of noise you two made. Heck, you went on for four whole hours... like don''t you get tired?"


    Keith simply smiled, not knowing how to exin. If he told her about his second awakened ability, she''d most probably freak out as there was no one who ever managed to have multiple awakened abilities.


    "Well... I don''t know. It was my first time." he said. It was technically true as he was a virgin in this life.


    Amelia stared at him like he was a monster before shaking her head, "Anyways... I asked for a leave today. For all three of us and Brandon agreed as there isn''t any case for us to take on at the moment. But that aside... you should probably let her go and put on your clothes."


    "Nah, I''ll stay this way. After all... this is the first and thest time for me right?"


    ".... yes." she replied and nodded before leaving the room. Seeing him hugging ra made her feel both good and bad. It was simr to anxiety. She was happy for the girl who was under confident in herself but there was something that was tugging her the other way.


    Once she got out of the room, she smacked her own cheeks and headed over to the kitchen so that she could make the three of them some breakfast. Midway, she stopped and sighed, "That guy eats like a pig. Tch, I''ll go buy some groceries first."


    Inside the bedroom, Keith gently ced ra beside him and put on his clothes. Using his libido control, he brought his golden staff to normal non-hard size and felt morefortable in his pants.


    "You''re awake aren''t you?" he asked as he put on his shirt and when he got no response, he continued, "I just need one word. Keep that in mind and I hope that you''re not toote."


    ra still didn''t respond, so Keith silently put on his clothes and once he was done, he walked out of the room, only to see a Amelia dressed up in a cute one piece gown that was bright blue in colour.


    "I thought you didn''t want to let her go?" she asked as she gave him a suspicious look, but he simply shrugged, "I just wanted to tell her something... alone."


    "Is that so..." she muttered and nodded, "Alright, just wait here for me and I''ll buy some groceries before I make us some food. Oh yeah, there''s something I want to talk to you about too. It''s about Adam and it''s important."


    Keith nodded as he walked towards her, "Sure, let me join you though. I feel like ra need some alone time to think about things."


    "Sure." she replied and walked out of the house with Keith right behind her.


    The two girls basically lived in one of the church''s living quarters but unlike Aria who''s room was inside the church, Amelia and ra''s house was outside, but it was extremely close to the church.


    Keith and Amelia walked silently for a few hundred meters until Keith took out a self made paper bag filled with pork and beef jerky. As he chewed on it, he nced at Amelia, "Want some?"


    "Nah, I''m good... I don''t like jerky too much. Not when I can eat fresh meat in an hour or two."


    "Wow, spoken like a true noble." Keithmented and grabbed another strip of jerky before biting it, "By the way, tell me about Adam. There''s no reason to wait is there?"


    Amelia nodded and took her sweet time to segregate her thoughts, "He''s... well, from what I''ve seen, he has special inclinations. I''ve never seen someone like him, like ever."


    "Can you not talk in riddles please?" Keith said, sounding annoyed. His mind was still stuck on ra.


    "Oh great sir, I humbly ask for your forgiveness!" she shouted before smacking Keith on the back of his head, which he dodged by ducking down slightly.


    Seeing this, she clicked her tongue. She then took a deep breath and sighed, "Alright sorry. Bad habits die hard and nobles always talked in circles. Gossips included." she exined before getting to the point.


    "What I wanted to say is that Adam likes men. I didn''t want you to be his target."


    Keith raised his eyebrow and recalled all of his interactions with Adam before dismissing the thought.


    "That''s... hard to believe."


    "He''s good at keeping secrets. If I hadn''t seen him naked in my brother''s bedroom... with his thing inside my brothers.... ugh. You get what I''m saying right? Anyways, I saw it with my own eyes so I want you to be careful.


    If possible, move out of your sister''s house and live in one of the church''s quarters. You''ll be given one for free just like how ra and I got ours."


    Keith nodded, but he was busy thinking about Adam.


    ''If she''s write, I must talk to Reba. Or should I not? Ugh, I hate family drama...''


    The two of them shopped for the required ingredients, but the shopping that only needed a few minutes turned into a three hour shopping spree. This just gave Keith more time to think about things.


    ''Yeah, it''ll be better to talk to Adam about it first. If he ever targeted me, I would have known with my danger sense, which means that he never had any ns to harm me. I think it''ll be better to take Amelia with me and confront him in the afternoon. This way, even if my danger sense failed me in the past as sexual interest doesn''t really count as danger, I''ll have someone to rely on.''

 Chapter 35: Bottom Lines

    Amelia and ra stared at Keith who nonchntly exposed his bulging stomach after he had eaten a huge portion of food once again.


    "How do you even live after eating so much...."


    No matter now many times she saw the same thing, Amelia just couldn''t get used to it. Seeing a lean guy lying on the floor with a bulging stomach after eating for two whole hours was amusing but also slightly scary.


    "Gotta get some of that muscle." he replied as he patted his stomach, "Anyways, let''s rest for a bit and then we can go meet Adam. He''s most probably at the police station."


    "Mhm." she replied and patted ra''s back, "Before we go, it''ll be better to get some blessings."


    Keith nodded and looked at ra who avoided his gaze, "Oh dear angel in disguise, please give me your divine blessings."


    "Already did." she said softly before getting up and heading to her room.


    Amelia saw this and smirked, "Wow just look at that. A girl who isn''t phased by most of the things is unable to handle staying in the same room as you. Just what did you two dost nigh- oow!"


    Keith''s eyes followed the small wooden box that had just bounced off of Amelia''s forehead and caught it.


    "Hai hai, I never expected to see a shy side to her." she added before lifting her hands, "Okay okay okay!!! I''ll stop."


    Keith couldn''t really see what ra was doing as he was sleeping in an awkward position and was toozy to move. For the next two hours, he chatted with Amelia until some of the food was digested and then left the ce.


    The two of them didn''t have to walk into the police station as Adam was standing outside with a mug of coffee in his hands.


    "Hey!" he said and waved his hands, but when he saw Amelia, he paused. He then looked at Keith, hoping to find some kind of answer but was unable to find anything.


    Keith silently walked towards him, "Listen, I just want to talk about something important. I mean no harm."


    Adam sighed and then looked at Amelia, "Well, I guess I know what you want to talk about. Come with me."


    Saying that, he walked into the police station and went straight into one of the smaller rooms after grabbing one chair from the main room where the Sheriff''s table was at. Keith silently followed him into the room with Amelia right beside him.


    The door of the room had one sign stuck to it which said, "Interrogation Room"


    Keith and Amelia walked in and saw Adam take a seat on one end of the small table. On the opposite side, there were two empty chairs.


    As for the rest of the room, it waspletely empty. Keith silently sat down and went straight to the topic.


    "Is it true that you prefer men over women? If yes, I want to know the reason why you married my sister."


    Hearing this, Adam nced at Amelia and then shifted his gaze back to Keith, "Can I smoke..."


    "I don''t mind." Keith said before Amelia could give out an answer. To him, this was a family matter and Amelia was simply here for his protection.


    Nodding in response, Adam took out a pipe from his pocket and filled it with what Keith could only guess, as dry tobo leaves. He then lighted up a match, which he used to get the tobo heated up.


    He took a long puff and exhaled, which looked more like a long, tired sigh.


    "Well, if people find out, I''ll be executed but yes you''re right. As for why I married Reba... well, I wanted kids and to get kids, I needed to marry a woman no matter what. Reba already knows everything and we''ve talked about it long ago. Before we married.


    I just want a loving family with kids that have my own blood flowing in them. As for Reba, she''s fine with it as long as I provide for her and our kids. Though, she had a condition and that was for our kids to not find out about me.


    Does that answer your question?" he asked and took another puff of smoke before exhaling.


    Keith coughed a few times due to the smoke before nodding, "As long as you take care of my sister, I don''t really care what you do. Also, my friend here was just worried that you''d target me and that''s the only reason why she told me about you. I hope that you don''t hold it against her."


    "Nah, we''re good as long as the wrong people don''t find out." Adam said and looked at Amelia, "Just so you know, miss. Your brother is the same as me but he''s... well he''s, to put it mildly, crazy. Doesn''t care who it is or how old they are. Unfortunately it was toote before I found out and by then, he had harmed way too many people.


    Even now, I have no means to stop him and the feeling of powerlessness I get... it''s hard to exin. Haa... no matter how useful my ability is, touching a Duke''s kid is almost impossible."


    "Can you give me the details?" Keith asked, frowning deeply as hepared Amelia''s brother to a certain guy in the music industry from his past life.


    ''Though I wasn''t there to see what actually happened in the end, this is my bottom line. Every single pedo, children maniptors, and groomers... I will stop them.''


    There was a limit to how much of the "When in Rome, do what the Romans do." that Keith would follow and this was his bottom line. He could ept multiple things but taking advantage of little ones was something that was the vilest and the most disgusting thing to him.


    He silently listened to everything that Adam said and the anger in his heart simply grew further and further. Amelia was also extremely shocked when she heard Adams words.


    ''I''m sorry Amelia, but your brother must and will mysteriously disappear some day.'' Keith said mentally as he nced at the distressed girl beside him.

 Chapter 36: Black Market

    Evening, after sunset.


    Keith wore casual clothes, which were basically just a lose cotton shirt and a pair of trousers. After checking himself out in the mirror, he stuffed his revolver halfway under his pants and covered it with his long shirt to make it hard to see.


    The handle was up and outside the pants with the barrel pointing downwards. He practised drawing it a few times before he loaded the weapon with 4 bullets while leaving thest one empty.


    For a secondyer of safety, he took out a 1 brak coin and pulled back the hammer of the revolver before cing the coin in between. The hammer kept the coin in ce and whenever he pulled the trigger, the coin would slip out and fall while the hammer hit the empty chamber.


    Keith simply rotated the cylinder and did this a few more times to make sure that it worked all the time. Once he was done, he grabbed a handful of bullets and put them in his pocket before leaving the house.


    He went straight to the area where the ck market was said to be and found a theatre that had avish look to it. He silently walked into an alleyway and put on the white y mask that he had tied to his waist using a thread.


    It did take him some time as he had to pull up his shirt to get the mask lose from the thread. He then waited for a while until he saw another masked person walk in and followed the guy.


    The moment he entered the building, he found himself in a decent sized empty hall. There were three doors, one on the left, middle and right each. Keith simply watched the masked person enter the right door and followed him until he was in an extremely small room that had another door on the opposite side.


    He was then stopped by a thin dude who was standing in front of this door.


    "Are you here to buy or sell?" the guy asked and Keith took out three of his 10 Zen notes before replying, "Buy."


    The guy nodded and stepped aside to let Keith in.


    Keith walked inside, not really caring about theck of security as the guy hadn''t checked him for weapons.


    ''I guess I''ll just have to be more careful here.'' he thought to himself and walked forward, passing by the stalls that had random things on disy. Most of these items looked like theatre props and Keith''s gaze paused on one such item.


    It was a trench coat simr to his own uniform, but this was was light brown in color while his uniform was ck. He walked to the stall and pointed at one of therger trench coats that were hung up and asked for the price.


    "Two Zen."


    Keith nodded and stared at the trench coat as he recalled the market prices. Usually a brand new trench coat was 4 Zen and this was only the average as the high end ones could go up to Chrons. 2 Zen was rtively cheap so he decided to buy it.


    The stall owner saw him take out a 10 Zen note and rubbed his hands together before immediately bringing out the change.


    "Here you go, sir." he said amicably as he gave Keith the trench coat and 8 zen before taking the 10 zen note from him.


    Keith simply nodded and left the stall to look for other things. As he walked, he put on the trench coat and saw the stalls slowly change when it came to their themes.


    At first, he only saw items that were theatre based but now, he could tell that the things at the stalls were stolen goods that had damage marks on them. There were chipped ded weapons, damaged leather armor, weird looking medicines and many more.


    Keith took his sweet time asking about the things he had interest in, but didn''t buy anything. That was until he moved even further and the theme changed again.


    There were animal carcasses hung up on thick steel hooks, a stall that openly advertised poisons, multiple stalls that sold drugs and there were two stalls that had frozen human bodies for sale too. And among all of these, Keith saw a few people selling pornographic novels and his only reaction to this was a chuckle.


    ''There''s always demand for stuff like this isn''t there?'' he thought and shifted his gaze from the porno stall to the guy who was selling gun powder.


    He simply ignored him as he didn''t require gun powder at the moment. He continued to walk forward and was quite surprised to see live wild animals chained up and there were also humans in wooden cages.


    ''Hm, isn''t ve trading illegal?'' he thought as he recalled the Empire''sws that had connection to ves. The only ones who could be sold as ves would be war prisoners, but Keith knew that it had been more than a decade since the Empire got into a war with their neighbors.


    But that was when he realised that he was at the ck market. Selling random people was illegal.


    ''No need to get myself into trouble. If I try to be a messiah without strength to protect or save myself, then I''ll be the one in those cages.''


    It took him a few more minutes to scour though the entire ce before he back tracked and bought two knives that he could easily hide in his trench coat. Then he walked over to the stall that promised assassinations and ced a 1 Zen note on the small table.


    "Priestess Aria from the Church of the Money God, Mammon."


    The old man sitting on the chair looked up at Keith as he quietly slid the note towards himself, "What''s the bounty?"


    "Four Zen, I want her alive. You can threaten her or beat her up a bit, but if I find out that anything else happened...." he whispered, but it was still loud enough for the old man to hear. As he whispered, he put his hand on the guy''s shoulder and increased his sensitivity to the limit before applying all the force that he could.


    "Aughhh!"


    Keith looked down at the old man who was was close to tearing up and brought his sensitivity back to normal, "Do you understand what I mean?"


    "Yes sir.. ugh,I''ll give them strict orders."

 Chapter 37: Awakened Bounty Hunter

    Two hourster, at night.


    Keith silently munched on some chicken jerky that he had bought a few minutes ago as he watched the contents on the system screen. He maintained a a close distance to Aria as he walked along the streets, using the guidance of his system to keep things urate.


    After observing her for the past few minutes, he only had one thing to say about her and that was how good she was at running away. Though it was mostly thanks to the system she had received from Keith.


    The goal was to avoid danger 50 times and by now, she had already managed to reach 12.


    Keith suddenly stopped munching on the jerky and rushed forward as he read the contents on the system screen. As he ran, he took out a new mask that had some cracks on it and put it on.


    [User Aria is surrounded by three men and is unable to escape. She pleads them to let her go...]


    The text that was generated was connected to the live events, so Keith ran as fast as he could and in a matter of just thirty seconds, he found her lying on the hard ground while one of the men had a rope in his hands, ready to tie her up.


    He continued running, but before he could reach them, one of the three guys spotted him and alerted the other two.


    "Who is this bastard?!" the guy screamed and the other two guys turned to look at Keith as he got closer.


    Two of the three guys were free, so they rushed to stop Keith before he got to Aria.


    Keith observed the two of them as he got closer. Both of them were thin, but based on the visible muscles that he could see, he could tell that they were strong guys. Physically, they could have been around Keith''s strength, but he knew that they would have a whole lot of experience whenpared to him who had lived a peaceful life for almost three decades.


    While he was at a disadvantage when considering experience and physical strength, he still had something that his opponents didn''t.


    The man who was closest to him, sent a punch flying towards his face but Keith dodged it by tilting his body to the left. As he did this, he returned the favour by punching the guy''s with all the strength that he could muster.


    As soon as he fist came in contact with his abdomen, he increased his sensitivity to the max.


    "Ough-" he let out a constipated grunt as he bent forward and directly fell face first into the ground, his body as still as a rock.


    Keith didn''t waste time and directly rolled backwards, only to see the second guy stop in his tracks instead of attacking him mindlessly.


    "Hey, take the girl and run. This guy doesn''t look like a normal person." he warned his friend, keeping his true goal in mind, "I''ll try stalling."


    Hearing this, Keith squinted his eyes and without wasting any time, he grabbed his revolver and pointed it at the guy in front of him.


    "If any one of you moves.... hands up in the air, assholes." he said, trying to assert his dominance, which he seeded in as both of them raised their hands, not wanting to lose their lives.


    Keith nodded, satisfied with the oue and spoke, "Now, turn around and leave silently. Without the girl."


    He then silently watched as they left the ce without causing anymotion and once they were gone, he untied the robed that bound Aria. Just as he was about to leave, the girltched onto his arm like a leech.


    Not wanting to deal with her, he directly pointed his gun at her head which forced her to let him go.


    "Leave."


    Unfortunately for him, this girl wasn''t like the three men that he had just scared off. Just from one look he could tell that her survival instincts were absolute garbage, but then he remembered about his system.


    ''Ah... she must be seeing white or blue aura around me right now.'' he thought as he changed the image in his mind. He imagined himself shooting a bullet through her head and stared at her menacingly.


    This did the trick as she stumbled backwards and began to apologise.


    "Leave." he repeated once again and this time, she listened to him and left the ce.


    ''This might be mentally scarring, but I need you to reach the goal as soon as possible. That''s the only way I''ll be able to have sufficient ability to protect myself when the war starts.'' he thought to himself as he recalled the start of the second arc in the novel.


    The entire arc was dedicated to the war between multiple regions and it was extremely bloody.


    ''rk... you must be fighting in the underground cage fights right now, huh? After all, the closer you get to death, the stronger you be.''


    Recalling the information on rk, the protagonist of the novel, he couldn''t stop himself from feeling helpless. His abilities screamed "protagonist" no matter how he thought about them.


    ''Well, there''s still two years time.'' he convinced himself as he opened up his system screen and continued to keep an eye on Aria as she had a quest to roam the district until the sun rose in the next morning. And she had to do this alone without any help from the Golden church, aka Church of the God of Money.


    Which meant that even Keith had to stay awake so that she wouldn''t actually get kidnapped by the bounty hunters. He simply wanted her to escape danger 50 times and did not wish her any physical harm.


    After his first conflict with the three bounty hunters, he was rtively free for the next few hours until she reached the 48 out of 50 escapes. It was at this time that Keith panicked.


    [User Aria stops in front of an Awakened bounty hunter, paralyzed and unable to move.]


    "Oh shit."

 Chapter 38: The God of Systems

    Aria was still pretty close to him, so he immediately rushed towards her location. Only to see her on the shoulder of a tall guy. He was extremely muscr and intimidating, but Keith silently took out his revolver and pointed at the guy.


    After all, no matter how strong a person was, there was an extremely low chance of them being able to fight against a firearm. But that was where he was wrong.


    The buff guy looked at Keith and smiled, "Oh a gun. Well, that''s fun."


    And as soon as he finished his sentence, thick scales grew out from his skin and covered his entire body including his face and head.


    "You think you can harm me?" he asked and Keith wasn''t really confident anymore. Even then, he pushed the coin to remove the makeshift safety on his gun and cocked the hammed back before firing twice in a quick session.


    First one was a nk shot, but second one went out with a loud bang before ricocheting off the guy''s scale armor.


    ''Fuck.'' he cursed inwardly before immediately turning around. Without wasting even a second, he ran. As his luck would have it, he heard heavy footsteps behind him, but he didn''t dare turn around. Instead, he put more effort into running.


    He continued to elerate until he got to a speed where he was unable to control his bnce. His whole posture was in a mess as he was leaning forward, which was not a good thing in the slightest.


    To his dismay, the sound of footsteps behind him just got closer no matter how fast he went. Even though he was unstable, he continued to run as he used to momentum to keep himself on the ground.


    He felt his heart beating hard and loud, but the sound of footsteps was just behind him now. Left with no choice as fear gripped his heart, he jumped forward and stopped worrying about his bnce as he turned around, ready to make onest gamble.


    The grip on his revolver was tight as he spun around and immediately pulled the trigger. This time, he went absolutely mental and did it thrice, emptying the cylinder before fell to the ground.


    Bang Bang Bang


    ng ng Skrshh


    First two bullets ricocheted off the scale armor just like the previous one, but the sound that Keith heard when thest bullet hit the guy was different. He didn''t know where it hit him, but from what he could see, the guy lost his footing and fell forward.


    Keith used the momentum that he had built up to roll over and this prevented him from sustaining any grave injuries. But when he took good look at the guy in front of him, he couldn''t help but let out a sigh of relief.


    Blood gently flowed down from the guy''s left calf and Keith used this opportunity to his advantage.


    "Run!!!"


    Hearing his shout, the Aria didn''t know how to respond as her ankles had been cuffed. Keith on the other hand, didn''t give a shit and just ran away.


    The scaly guy grunted as he stood back up and limped towards Aria, "Fucking bitch, all this trouble and we only get four Zen."


    "I''ll give you five!" she eximed when she realised that there was a bounty on her head. The theatre and ck market technically belonged to the Golden Church, so as a Priestess, she knew about the businesses in the ck market.


    Though the ck market was under the Golden Church, it didn''t stop them from going for their own people as even the official members used the bounty hunters to target fellow official church members. That was how corrupt and chaotic the Golden church was.


    Hearing her words, the guy thought for a bit before nodding as this was amon urrence in his line of job. This was also the reason why he dly took on the bounty for an official member as the chances of getting bribe money was high.


    "Sure, but I need double. 10 Zen."


    Aria nodded and took out a few silvery grey notes from her pocket but before she could count them, the guy snatched it all. He then bent down and was about to unlock the cuffs when he heard a series of loud gunshots behind him.


    The next instant, he felt immense pain in his lower back. He hurriedly got up, but since his left leg was injured, it immediately gave in to his weight and he fell back down, kneeling. This was enough time for Keith to get close as he was only a few meters away, just hiding as he reloaded his gun a few seconds ago.


    He pounced on the guy and increased his sensitivity to the max as he dug his finger into the bullet hole on his calf. The guy twitched violently before passing out and once he was out cold, theyer of scales gradually sunk back into his body.


    Keith went straight for cuffs that still had the keys in them and unlocked them. He then took a quick nce at the system screen which said 49/50 danger escapes.


    He didn''t think too much about it and pulled out one of the knives that he had hidden in his trench coat before pointing it at Aria, "Go take the money that''s in his hands. If not, I''ll kill you."


    "Y- yes." she stammered as she rubbed her ankles and then rushed towards the fallen guy. The moment she grabbed the money that was in his hands, Keith grinned.


    "I don''t need that money, but I want you to take this guy to the theatre and hand him over to the people there." he said and was about to leave the ce when he saw her fall to her knees and bow down to him.


    With her head almost touching the ground, she spoke, "Is... is the holy one satisfied with the results of my trial?"


    Hearing this, Keith stared at her silently as the gears in his mind turned. A few seconds passed as Aria waited, hoping to hear some good news.


    "A new god that grants people unimaginable power has been born. His name unknown, but we call him, the God of Systems."

 Chapter 39: Gold Ritual

    Keith sat in the office with Edward and ra while the other two were out to deal with a minor case. He had a book in his hands but, he was looking at something else; his system screen.


    The soldier guy had managed to sleep with 10 women in under a week, and now that both him and Aria had finished doing their things, Keith could now use his gacha wheel again.


    He stared at he red button in front of him and decided to postpone it until he got off his shift.


    ''I have a lot of money right now, so instead of gambling with extremely low chances, I''ll use the luck enhancement ritual.'' he thought as he recalled the ritual that rk learnt about in thetter half of the novel.


    The day went on peacefully and once his shift was up, he immediately left the ce and went to the Empire''s official Bank that was in Auberg District. It looked like regr stalls with a counter, but there were three people behind it.


    Keith silently walked up to them and ced his three 1 Chron notes along with a bunch of Zen notes which added up to 100.


    "I''d like to exchange this for fifty grams of gold." he said the the man behind the counter nodded before he began to count. Once he was done, he looked up at Keith, "Exchange fees will be five Zen."


    Hearing this, Keith let out a soft sigh and ced a 5 zen note on the counter.


    He then saw the guy grab the money and walk into the back room where only the staff were allowed. He didn''t have to wait for too long as the guy game out with a small gold coin and ced it on the counter for Keith.


    "On the name of Money God Mammon, I swear that this gold coin weighs 50 grams."


    Keith watched the guy make his oath and nodded before taking the coin from the counter. Promises and Oaths when made using a god''s name, had a huge impact on people. If they broke that promise or lied while making one, they would receive severe punishments.


    Since nothing happened to the guy when he made the oath, Keith happily took his coin and walked away. Instead of going back home, he headed to an inn and paid the owner one brak coin for the night before going to the room that he was given.


    Once inside, he he took out his knife and made a small cut on his palm before using the empty bullet shells to store the dripping blood. It took him some time, but once he managed to fill them all up, he went on to the next step.


    Blood still continued to drip from the cut, so he used his small handkerchief to stop the blood flow. Once done, he used a small chalk that he had bought on the way to the inn to draw two simple shapes.


    An equteral triangle that had equal sides and a circle that touched all three corners of the triangle. It took him multiple tries, but thanks to the ability to rub the chalk off the floor, he could get it done more efficiently.


    He looked at the simple diagram from multiple angles and made changes until he was satisfied with the oue. Once done, he ced the bullet shells filled with blood at the center of the triangle.


    The firstyer was a triangle, with a total of 9 bullet shells. On top of these bullets, Keith ced three more and then he carefully put the gold coin on top.


    "Phew... finally done." he said out loud and sighed. He then took a few deep breaths to calm himself down and then took off his handkerchief as he needed more blood. He wiped some of it off of his palm and used it to write one word around the bullet shell pyramid.


    He did this three times on each side and once he was done, he sped his hands together, "Oh great god of prosperity, I humbly offer you this gold and my blood as a sacrifice. Please grant me some enhanced luck."


    Keith stayed still with his eyes closed for a few seconds and then, he suddenly felt heat radiating from the front. He didn''t open his eyes and kept them close until he no longer felt any heat hitting him. This took a few seconds, but once it was done, he immediately opened his eyes and nced at the clean, empty floor that only had empty bullet shells on it.


    With a grin, he mentallymanded the gacha wheel to appear before him and pressed the spin button. As it spun, Keith prayed like he always did when he was ying gacha games in his previous life, hoping that he could get a 5 star character.


    ''Yellow system is confirmed but I really really hope that I can get an orange one. Please please please pleaseee!!''


    He watched the gacha wheel slow down at a yellow section and sighed, knowing that his wish wouldn''t be fulfilled.


    But it didn''t stop there and slowly moved to the next section and stopped at red.


    Keith stared at the gacha wheel, shocked and surprised. He didn''t move for two whole seconds before the excitement suddenly erupted like a volcano.


    "Gah DAMNNN!! Let''s fucking goooooo!" he screamed as he jumped back up from his sitting posture, breaking into a little victory dance as if he were at the wildest rave.


    Once he calmed down, he felt a slight headache that hit him thanks to the information regarding the red system which was the most valuable type. They were long term and extremely powerful.


    They remained active with the user indefinitely or until Keith wished to withdraw the system from them. The only drawback of this was that, if he did withdraw the system from them directly, then he wouldn''t be able to give this system to anyone else and it would simply cease to exist in the world.


    ''Now... I can''t just give this to a random person. I''ll have to give it to someone who has high potential and the timing must also be right.'' he thought as he recalled every single character from the novel that were still in his memories.

 Chapter 40: Training Program

    The more time he spent thinking, the more he calmed down. He silently picked up the empty bullet shells and put them in his pocket.


    ''At this point in time, there is only one guy who fits the criteria. I could either go with him, or I could pick ra... though, that''ll be for personal reasons. I need someone who can go head to head with rk, so ra is out of the question. I don''t wish to put her in danger.''


    As he got back to the bed in the small room, he frowned, ''No, I can''t pick him. He''s too evil and he''ll just get worse. I need someone with potential not someone who''s already strong.''


    He fell back onto the bed and stared at the ceiling as he thought more, trying to pick the perfect person for his goals, someone who had the potential to go head to head with the protagonist of the novel.


    Time quickly passed as he was lost in thought and before he could realise it, he fell asleep.


    *****


    He woke up a few hourster and looked out the window to see that it was night time.


    "It''s dark already... oh well, if I''m lucky enough... I should be able to find him in the slums. Hopefully, he hasn''t been taken away by the ve traders." he muttered as looked away from the window and walked out of the room.


    He then went straight to the inn where his workce was, and found a young girl sleeping at the counter while simr looking boy was sitting on one of the chairs. Before he could speak, the guy got up and greeted him.


    "Hello, you must be Keith Zenister right?"


    Hearing him, Keith nodded.


    "Great, I wanted to inform the head detective first but anyone is fine. The headquarters has sent out orders for your entire team to attend the training program. Of course, everyone excluding Edward.


    You must head to the main church that''s located at the capital of Baroma Kingdom and once you''re there, someone will guide you as long as you show them the Church''s official ring."


    "Hmm... that''s a bit too sudden but I understand. Will I receive any money for the travel?"


    The teenager nodded and immediately took out a cotton pouch from his pocket, "Here''s a bunch of braks and Zens. You can leave as early as you can, but you must reach the church in two months from now."


    Keith then talked to him a little more and fished for some information before leaving. He had no ns to stay for too long, but he had some preparations to do. The first thing he did was to head back home and since it wasn''t toote, he saw both Adam and Reba awake in the living room.


    He went straight to the topic without wasting time and once he was done exining everything, Adam got up from his chair, "Wait here, I''ll bring something for you. The training program for me was extremely hard and I''ve heard that the Chuches take things even more seriously."


    "I''ve heard of it..." Keith replied as he recalled the training camp arc from the novel. rk was a part of the War Church for a while during and after the war, and due to this, Keith had a lot of information regarding training camps.


    He then talked a bit with his sister and made sure to make light of the hardness of the training camps. Though, from the look on her face, he could tell that she didn''t really trust his words.


    Adam walked back to the living room a few minutester with a briefcase and gave it to Keith, "Filled with bullets and um some bottles of whisky. When are you leaving by the way?"


    "Now. I''ll pack my stuff and just leave before all the cart drivers go back home." he said and rushed to his room. He tossed out half of his old clothes and reced them with his new uniforms instead.


    Once that was done, he really did not have anything else to do so he grabbed the suitcase that was filled with his clothes and the briefcase he received from Adam before leaving the room.


    After saying his farewells to the couple, he left the house and went straight to the Auberg district''s main road where most of the carriages would normally be stationed. Unlike the first time when he hired a mule carriage, this time he went for a horse carriage as it was faster.


    "To the River Market."


    "That''ll be 16 Braks sir." the guy said and Keith immediately gave him a 1 Zen note.


    The guy thanked him in response and gave back 4 braks before getting onto the carriage, ready to start the journey. Keith put the money in his leather pouch and got in before opening his briefcase.


    Inside, he saw three bottles of whiskey and the rest of the space was taken by bullets. He silently counted them and was quite happy by the end of it.


    ''90 bullets... I don''t think I''ll use these many, but having them is better than not having them.'' he thought to himself before closing the briefcase. He then recalled the information regarding the River Market from the old Keith''s memories as this ce wasn''t mentioned in the novel.


    ''It''s got a way better marketpared to Auberg district, but I''ll simply use the river port to hire a boat. This way, I''ll be able to travel much fasterpared to using any carriage.''


    His goal was simple. It was to head to the Morose Kingdom and meet his target. He also nned to help him out financially before continuing to Baroma Kingdom.


    Keith stretched his body and leaned back against the seat before letting his body rx. Time passed by and he safely switched to a boat before continuing on his journey while not encountering any danger.


    That was until he stopped in front of a mud hut in a vige that was at the outskirts of Morose Kingdom. Fearful screams escaped out of the hut and just one second after Keith heard the sounds, there was a loud bang like something was banged against the wall.


    And then, there was silence.

 Chapter 41: Fabian; The Unkillable

    Inside a small mud hut, was a kid who seemed to have been 14 years old, his limbs tied to a stake that was nted deep into the ground. In front of him stood a muscr guy who was holding a wooden club.


    "Now that I''m done with your parents... it''s time to get you." the muscr guy said as he inched closer, "Hmm, you''re too thin but if I fatten you up a little, I''m sure you''ll look pretty. I should be able to sell you off as a ve and get back the money that you guys borrowed."


    The kid growled as he stared back at the man, "I''ll kill you... i''ll kill you! I''LL KILL KROFFFF-"


    *Bang*


    The guy rammed the wooden club into the kid''s abdomen, silencing him immediately before taking a few steps back until he got to the dead bodies of his parents, "Oy kid, do you know why these two died?"


    He didn''t wait for an answer and just went on, "It''s because they caused a scene when they simply had to obey my orders and pleasure my clients. As long as they did that, I would have given them three meals a day but looking at you now... you''re even more of a rebel than these two fuck bags.


    It really would be more profitable to sell you off as a ve. Those old noble women will get wet while trying to win you in the auction hahahahaha!!"


    "I''ll... kill..."


    "Oh shut up, you!" the guy growled as he walked forward and began to beat him up. Screams escaped the hut, but he didn''t care as hew as the vige chief''s son and his father had everyone under his control.


    If anyoneined, then they would face a simr fate as the kid and his parents.


    He continued to hit the Kid while he screamed and every single scream from him seemed to be getting the muscr guy more and more excited, which continued until he hit the kid on his head, after which he passed out.


    "Tch, should have hit his shoulder instead." he muttered, as regret settled in him since he wanted to hit the kid more. Just as he was about to untie the kid, he heard the door break open with a loud bang.


    Keith rushed in and saw the kid lying on the floor with multiple bruises on his body along with some that were bleeding. He shifted his attention to the muscr guy and with an expressionless face, pointed his revolver at him.


    "Move away from the kid. Now."


    "You bastard, do you not know who I am?" he asked angrily as he red at Keith, but Keith shrugged nonchntly, "A dead man."


    *Bang*


    The bullet left the revolver''s barrel with a bang and hit the guy straight in his chest. Keith didn''t stop there and pulled the trigger once again, hitting his torso this time. He then walked towards the guy and punched him right in the face while he was struggling to deal with the pain, which immediately went up thanks to Keith''s sensitivity increase ability.


    He twitched multiple times, but unlike Keith''s previous opponents, he didn''t pass out. Instead, he rolled on the floor, screaming and crying after Keith let him go.


    Keith watched him struggle as he had him on gunpoint for a few seconds until he heard amotion behind him. He quickly turned around to see a simr looking buffed guy who just had an older look to him.


    "My son..." he said, his expression pained, but Keith on the other hand was just extremely shocked to see the guy in front of him.


    ''I knew that the guy looked familiar but to think he was this mother fucker''s son.'' he thought as he stared at the middle aged muscr guy in front of him.


    "Fabian." he muttered as he squinted his eyes, slowly raising his right hand that was holding on to the revolver, "A lot of people wouldn''t have to suffer in the future. As long as you die, that is."


    Saying that, he pulled the trigger. Fabian let out a grunt before grinning, "You think that can kill me?"


    The bullet wound on his chest healed at a rapid pace and in just six seconds, the bullet was pushed out of his body and the hole fully healed.


    ''It''s not as broken as it used to be in the novel, but I guess it makes sense. His regenerative capabilities increase the more he uses his awakened ability.''


    Fabian on the other hand, rushed towards Keith after his wound healed.


    Keith swerved to the left, trying to avoid the punch, but Fabian was too fast and precise. His fist connected with Keith''s left half of his face, knocking his head back.


    Panicking, he shot thest bullet that was in his revolver and grabbed Fabian''s arm to increase his sensitivity. He didn''t have too much hope as he knew that Fabian must be used to pain, and his prediction proved to be true.


    He screamed as he pressed against the fresh bullet wound that was on his chest and kicked Keith away with all his strength, sending him flying until he hit the wall behind him.


    Not letting this chance go to waste, Keith grabbed his knife and cut the rope that had the kid bound to the stake before lifting him up. He then ran towards Fabian who was now on the ground and kicked his face with all of his might before running out the door.


    He made sure to increase his sensitivity to the max once again, but unlike the bullet wound, his kick didn''t do much damage. Fabian wanted to run behind him, but Keith''s next words stopped him from doing so.


    "If you try to follow me, I''ll shoot your son next! I still have a bullet left, you bastard!"


    Fabian punched the ground due anger and frustration, "AAAAARGH!!! YOU DAMN SON OF A WHOREEEE!"


    Even though he wanted to kill Keith right at this moment, his son''s life mattered more.

 Chapter 42: Battle God System Activated

    Once he got the kid, Keith ran as fast as he could before stopping in the middle of a forest. He could have taken a save path and picked the roads, but if he did that, there was a chance of Fabian finding him.


    Thanks to his existence, Keith had no choice but to pick the forest. He put the kid down reloaded his revolver with 4 bullets and kept one nk for safety before he crouched down to the kid''s level of sight.


    He gently patted his cheeks, trying to wake him up but when it didn''t work, he grabbed his shoulders and shook the guy back to consciousness.


    "I''ll kill-" he began the moment he opened his eyes, but when he saw Keith''s unfamiliar face, he looked around.


    "You..."


    Keith shrugged, "I took you away from those guys, but I''m sorry I couldn''t get your parents."


    "It''s fine... I don''t really consider them my parents anyways. They gave birth to me and just used me to work in their farms." he said, his expression calm but Keith could tell that he was nervous.


    "Well, my name is Keith and I''m an official member of the church of protection. I must go now, but if you ever need help, feel free to ask the nearest church for my whereabouts. Oh and.... this should help you with a new start." he said and opened his leather pouch before taking out a 5 Zen note from it.


    The kid looked at Keith and then the money before stammering, "I.. I s sir, but..."


    "Just take it. Also, you should probably introduce yourself. That''s the first thing you do when you meet someone new and heck, I even saved you!" he said,ining as he stuffed the money into the kid''s hands before grinning, satisfied with the results when he saw him staring at the money in awe.


    "My name.... is Vincent Vance Valentino. I''d rather be called just Vincent though, and um I''m seventeen years old even though I look like this. And uh, thank you." he said softly, not realising that tears were rolling down his face as he spoke.


    Keith nodded, "Well, nice to meet you Vincent. I must go now, but like I said, feel free to find me if you need something."


    Vincent nodded in response, not knowing what to say or do even though he wished for Keith to stay. To his surprise, just before Keith was about to leave, he stopped.


    "You''ll probably get lost if I leave you here, so you can follow me to Bromburge town if you want to."


    "Yes!" Vincent eximed as he jumped back up onto his feet, ignoring all the pain that he felt thanks to the bruises and wounds from the repeated beating that he had to endure until now.


    Keith felt pity for Vincent, but he also couldn''t just take him in as he needed Vincent to be strong enough to be able to fight people like Fabian and rk, both of whom would be absolute monsters after the war.


    He also regretted the fact that he wasn''t able to kill Fabian as his aim wasn''t good enough. If it was, he would have gone for a head shot. Hitting a stationary target while in a quite and safe room felt way differentpared to aiming for a person''s head.


    As he thought about Fabian, he sighed, "I should have tried to kill him off, but oh well... at least I''m alive. There was no way I could fight him without a loaded gun."


    "Wait, you fought the vige chief?!" Vincent quipped in from the side, to which Kieth nodded, "Yeah, but I was panicking back then. If I kept my cool, then things would have ended differently."


    "Whoa, you''re strong aren''t you?" he asked Keith. To him, it didn''t matter if Keith was using a gun or not. Just the fact that he fought Fabian and ran away with is life intact was a huge achievement as he knew Fabian extremely well.


    Keith smiled deprecatingly as he knew his capabilities very well, "Not really. But guess what? I have a feeling that one day you''ll be way stronger than Fabian. Maybe you''ll be the strongest awakened in the entire world."


    "Hah? Me? Hell no, there''s no way I can be the strongest. Not when I didn''t even Awaken."


    "Like I said, it''s just a gut feeling." Keith corrected him as he patted his back, "And you should have some confidence."


    The two of them continued to talk, learning more about each other as they walked towards Bromburge town that was close to Vincent''s vige. It took them a few hours and by the time they reached the town, it was already morning.


    Keith stopped in front of a small restaurant and looked at Vincent, "Give me the 5 Zen note that I gave you earlier. If you go around showing off so much money, then you''ll have a target on your back if you don''t have any backing."


    "Oh okay, here." Vincent replied and gave Keith is money back, only to see Keith give him four 1 Zen notes along with a few brak coins that added up to 1 Zen in value.


    "Well, use it responsibly and try to find a job that pays well before you run out of money." he advised before leaving Vincent in front of the restaurant and headed off to the other side of the town where he had left his things.


    He walked into an inn and went straight to his room before grabbing his things and walked out. The first thing he did was to hire a mule carriage as he felt a little poor after using up most of his money.


    ''I only have 26 Zen and 2 Braks right now... it''s better to start saving until I find another opportunity to make money.'' he thought as he took out a 1 Zen note from his leather pouch so he could pay the driver 14 braks, the amount that both of them had agreed upon.


    He climbed into the carriage after getting his 6 braks of change back and gave out a mentalmand.


    ''Set condition: Trigger the system screen when Vincent eats food.''


    The moment he set the condition, he saw a system notification pop up.


    Battle God System Activated.

 Chapter 43: First Step to Becoming the Battle God

    Vincent was sitting at a table while stuffing himself with bread and stew when a translucent blue screen popped up in front of him.


    [Congrattions, you have been selected as the host for Battle God System. From today onwards, you are free to use all the features and abilities that the system can offer. Would you like to check your current stats?]


    [Yes || No]


    Vincent had heard about people getting blessed by gods through the stories that some people told in in the past, so this was a pleasant surprise which got him a bit too excited.


    "Yes!" he said out loud, gaining attention of the people eating nearby, but didn''t care too much about them. Instead he stared at the screen in front of him, hoping so see what it had to offer.


    [The host can issuemands mentally. There is no need to say them out loud.]


    [Host''s current stats:]


    Physique: Grade F (Absolute garbage)


    Gic Physique Type: Endurance


    Awakening Status: Not Awakened (24 days, 4 hours, 49 minutes remaining)


    Skill Trees:


    Battle God''s Body: Locked


    Awakened Ability Boost: Locked


    Unarmed Combat: Locked


    Sword Arts: Locked


    Spear Arts: Locked


    Staff Arts: Locked


    Shield Arts: Locked


    Knife Arts: Locked


    Archery Mastery: Locked


    Throw Mastery: Locked


    War God''s inheritance: Locked


    Vincent read the contents on the screen in awe and by the time he was done, a new system notification popped up.


    [Beginner Quest: Visit the Bromburge town''s underground cage fight organisation and register your name. Approximate Location: The old weapon store beside the graveyard.]


    Reward: Immediate Awakening, Unlock the Battle God''s Body.


    Seeing this, he quickened his pace and ate the food extremely fast, almost choking a few times. Once he was done, he payed the guy 1 brak coin and left the restaurant.


    **********


    Keith leisurely sat in his carriage as he read the contents on the screen, which was showing him Vincent''s current actions through text format.


    ''There''s a limit to what I can give him for free. '' he thought as he knew about the limits of his powers. Previously, he only got the white systems, so it didn''t have much of an importance but for a red system, things were different.


    Every awakened person had a limit to their awakened ability. A perfect example would be Adam''s limited bullet creation. Most people wouldn''t use their abilities to the limit, but everyone had limits to their capabilities and Adam wasn''t an exception to this.


    ''In simple words, it''s simr to a person''s physical stamina but the more I use my ability, the more my capacity grows. I could technically give Vincent a lot of freebies, but that won''t be worth it in the long run. He needs to feel like he''s achieved the rewards on his own, but he does need a boost at this moment.'' he thought as he stared at the screen in front of him.


    He rubbed his chin, deep in thought for a few minutes before sping his hands together, "Yeah, there''s no need to worry too much. Bromburge''s cage fights aren''t too deadly."


    ''As long as he''s alive, I can give him a regeneration boost as a participation reward. If he wins a fight, then I''ll give him extra stuff but again, I shouldn''t give him too much.''


    Keith had a lot of time in his hands at the moment as the journey would take around 5 days to get to the nearest river ports. So until then, he nned to focus on Vincent''s growth.


    ''Well, that aside... let''s take the tax first shall we?'' he thought mentally as he opened up the system screen that he had ignored for the past few minutes.


    Battle God System


    User: Vincent Vance Valentino


    Capabilities: Gives ess to multiple skill trees that aid and push the user to be close to a battle god.


    System Tax: Physical money; 4 Zen, Inheritance of user''s physical ability.


    ''Hmm, no awakened ability. I guess I''ll wait for him to get to that ce. Once he awakens it, I''ll take a copy of his ability as tax.''


    Fortunately, he didn''t have to wait for long as Vincent was very proactive when it came to quests. In just a few minutes, Keith got a notification that informed him of the quest''spletion.


    And at the same time, he also felt lethargic all of a sudden.


    ''Wow, it feels like all of my energy has been drained.'' he thought to himself, ''This isn''t something rted to calories, food of physical energy for sure. Must be mental energy or maybe there''s a special term for it. Though, I wonder why there was no information about mental energy in the novel.''


    Keith then began to create another quest for Vincent after taking his newly awakened ability as tax.


    [Quest Created]


    First Step towards bing the Battle God: Wait until night and sign up for a fight as a newbie.


    Win: Reveal conditions to unlock Unarmed Combat Arts, free regeneration boost.


    Lose: Body Regeneration boost in exchange for 1 Zen.


    Once done, he sent it to Vincent and leaned back against his seat to get some well needed rest as he was feeling slightly nauseous at the moment. It was just a short nap as he woke up two hourster, feeling better than before.


    He raised his index finger and with a simple thought, a spark was generated before it turned into a bright yellow me. He knew that he could make the me bigger, but since he was in a carriage and didn''t wish to raise suspicion, he decided to test the full extent of his powerster on.


    Keith then tried to nap once again, sleeping for an hour or two before waking up and he did this five times until the sun went down. Seeing that now was the right time, he kept his eyes on the system screen and waited.


    Minutes slowly passed and even though he was bored, he continued to wait until-


    [... Vincent enters the cage and faces the man known as Smelly Rat.]


    ''Switch to video mode.'' Keith gave out a mentalmand and saw the text on the system screen disappear. Recing it was a first person view of the cage in Vincent''s perspective.

 Chapter 44: Wild Vincent

    Vincent stared at the scrawny looking guy in front of him who wasn''t too different from himself. He himself was a 17 year old teenager, but looked like a 14 year old thanks to malnutrition, which happened due to theck of food.


    "Smelly Rat huh? Do you actually smell?" he asked as he tried to hide his nervousness, but the guy simply stared at him like he didn''t care about the question even one bit. He couldn''t help but nce at the crowd that was surrounding the cage.


    There were around fifty people watching and even though Vincent was nervous, he pushed through. And his first step to focus was to bang his head against the cage.


    "Ah, I feel slightly better now." he said as he looked at the middle aged woman who was outside the cage, sitting on a huge chair that looked like a makeshift throne, "Can we start?"


    Hearing his confident words, the woman grinned before nodding, "Absolutely kid, absolutely!"


    She then looked at the spectators who seemed to be ready to watch the fight too and beganmenting, "Okay then, before we begin the fight, I''d like to introduce this new blood to everyone of you. He will be called the Battle God from now on and even though it sounds narcissistic, it''s hard to deny the fact that is sounds cool! But here''s the question!


    Will he be able to spread and make his name in the cage? Or will he get chewed out by our trusty Rat?!"


    "CHEW CHEW CHEW CHEW!!"


    "RATTY RATTY RATTY!"


    The crowd mostly cheered for Smelly Rat and seeing the crowd roar, the woman raised her voice even louder, "LET THE FIGHT BEGIIIIINN!!!"


    The moment she was done, Rat and Vincent dashed forwards before both of them punched their opponent, not caring much about their own bodies. But unfortunately for Vincent, Rat''s punch was just stronger than his own.


    First punch was the deciding factor and a chance for Smelly Rat and he did not let it go. He pressed on and continued to rain down punches on Vincent who tried his best to dodge and block his hits.


    He saw a fist flying from the left towards his cheek, so he immediately leaned back before sending a powerful kick towards Rat''s delicate eggs. He lost his bnce and fell backwards, but Rat''s situation was even worse as the guy fell to the floor, struggling as he cried out in pain.


    Vincent got up, but didn''t use the chance to end the fight early. Instead, he waited for his opponent to recover and used this time to take a quick nce at his system screen which showed how War God''s Body worked.


    [Battle God''s Body]


    1) Battle Instinct: The more you fight, the more you learn from the fight. This knowledge will be permanent and cannot be erased under normal circumstances. Current Grade: F


    2) (Locked)


    3) (Locked)


    ''I don''t really know what it means... but I''ll just have to make the fightsst longer to gain more benefits right?'' he thought, feeling slightly doubtful and conflicted as the opportunity to win was right in front of him.


    But fortunately or unfortunately, Rat recovered while Vincent was struggling internally.


    "I''ll make you regret not taking this chance!" Rat dered, feeling humiliated thanks to Vincent''s mercy. He then took a few steps back to make some distance so that he could buy some time to recover a bit more.


    Vincent understood what he was up to and let him do as he pleased. He used the free time to mentally prepare himself and after a few seconds, he rushed in to fight.


    He balled his fist and let it fly towards Rat who easily dodged it, but Vincent didn''t stop and used his momentum to his advantage, rotating his body as he sent a roundhouse kick towards Rat.


    It hit his shoulder and even though it wasn''t a delicate area, the force behind the kick was a bit too much for Rat to withstand. He lost bnce and fell to the ground along with Vincent who had also lose his footing thanks to the risky move he made.


    ''I should keep him on the ground!'' Rat came to a realisation after experiencing the kick and knew that there was no way he could withstand too many of those kicks. He knew that he didn''t have the same level of technique as Vincent, but he knew his own strengths well.


    He pounced towards Vincent as he screamed, "Battle Goddd!!!"


    It was toote for Vincent to act as Rat had alreadytched onto his legs, but when he turned to look at Rat, he saw him open his mouth wide before chomping down on his leg.


    Rat didn''t show any mercy and every single spectator could see that as blood flowed from the bite marks.


    "AAAARGH!!!" Vincent let out a blood curdling scream before pouncing on Rat with his mouth wide open. The logical part of his brain seemed to have taken the back seat while his beastly side took control.


    He copied Rat''s move and chomped down on his arm, his teeth tearing into the poor guy''s biceps that were barely there. Rat wed on Vincent''s back, but it seemed to have no effect on stopping him from biting.


    Instead, he sent his right arm towards Rat''s face, copying his move once again but instead of wing his back, he went for the face. His nails pulled the skin, tearing it in straight lines while he pulled his head backwards, tearing out the flesh that was on Rat''s arm.


    Stinky Rat screamed, but he didn''t let Vincent go. With pain and rage as a fuel, he went for another bite, but before he could do anything, his was met with a hard punch right to his face.


    Vincent didn''t stop and nor did he wish to as he continued to punch. The more he punched, the more his fingers and knuckles hurt, but this also pushed him to get even more aggressive.


    "Raaaghh!!" he screamed, iling his arms and legs violently as he felt himself getting yanked backwards, away from the bleeding Stinky Rat who looked like he had passed out.

 Chapter 45: Affordable Travel Options

    Keith stared at the screen in front of him with disbelief. He wasn''t new to fights as he had watched plenty of MMA fights on TV, but seeing people biting each other''s flesh out was something he never expected.


    "Make a new rule. From today onwards no one is allowed to bite people." he saw the middle aged woman say to her people as she watched Vincent and Rat getting taken away.


    The view stayed with Vincent so Kieth wasn''t able to hear more after Vincent was taken far away from the crowd. But it did not matter as his system gave him ess to the information that he needed.


    [Quest has beenpleted. Please get ready to reward the user.]


    [Expected rewards: Reveal conditions to unlock Unarmed Combat Arts and free regeneration boost.]


    Seeing this, he knew that Vincent was dered the winner. He then let out a soft sigh and closed his eyes before increasing his "intent" to give out the rewards. The moment he did, he felt energy from his body getting drained but it wasn''t as bad as earlier.


    ''Haa... looks like directly unlocking something takes a lot more mental strengthpared to revealing the unlock conditions and regeneration. Though, this is getting kinda exciting.'' he thought as he essed Vincent''s system.


    Unarmed Combat Arts: Beat someone in a fight while using only your arms, legs and head to unlock the skill tree.


    "Well, it''s pretty easy but I guess I''ll have to get him to earn some money on the side first. He needs nutritious food to build a strong body and he also needs to work out. Too much work... I wonder if there''s a shortcut." he muttered as he inspected Vincent''s stats in depth.


    One by one, he checked all the skill trees before moving up to Vincent''s personal stats. When he got to physique, he grinned.


    ''Great. I''ll use physique upgrade in return for money. Let''s start with 1 Zen for the first upgrade, which is from F to E and from there we can just keep quadrupling it (multiplied by 4) until he reaches SSS grade.''


    After making up his mind, he sent out a new notification to Vincent letting him know about the new feature.


    "He''ll probably buy the E grade once he wakes up, but I''m a bit too tired right now. Oh well, he can wait." Keith muttered as he leaned back and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep almost instantly even though he had slept for almost an entire day already.


    Five days quickly passed and during this time, Vincent lied on his bed as he focused on recovery while Keith kept an eye on him, feeling extremely bored thanks to theck of portable entertainment in this world.


    During this time, Vincent had bought the E and D grade physiques using the money he received from Keith and the money he made from the underground cage fight, which was 7 Zen. In total, he had 11 Zen and 19 Braks, but after deducting the 5 Zen that he used for the upgrades and almost 9 braks that was spent on food, he only had 6 Zen and 10 Braks.


    Just as Keith was watching Vincent in boredom, he heard the carriage driver''s voice.


    "Sire, we have arrived."


    "Oh great, give me a second." Keith said as he grabbed his things and climbed out of the carriage before heading straight to the river port where he could see multiple boats lined up to transport people and goods.


    Not wanting to waste too much money, he went to the long boat that was behind arge goods ship. Most people picked the long boats for their travels as it cost the leastpared to other boats as long as they didn''t have too much luggage to carry.


    Keith with his suitcase and briefcase fit the criteria so he didn''t bother wasting his money on other boats.


    Long boats usually followed one particr path and would drop people off along the way. It was like a public bus back on his old, but the long boats only operated on rivers.


    He stopped in front of the boat and looked at the man who was handling the tickets, which were basically just small pieces of paper that were stamped like the newspaper tokens that Keith bought a few weeks ago.


    "I''d like to go to Baroma Kingdom. Any district that has Goddess of Protection''s church will suffice." he said and the guy nodded before using a thin stick to poke a hole on one of the boxes that were printed on the brown ticket.


    "Four Braks. The journey will take around five months and we''ll be making stops at other river ports so that''s the only time you''ll get to buy food and take care of your other needs. We''ll stay at each river port for half a day before moving on. Any questions?"


    Keith nodded, "What if I have to take a shit or pee?"


    "Pee in the river you idiot. As for shitting, we can stop for you at the banks but you must make it quick. Is that it?"


    "Yeah." Keith said, nodding as he walked towards the boat and picked a nice spot for to sit before turning to look at the guy once again, "When are we going to leave?"


    The guy turned around and sighed, getting slightly annoyed with Keith, "Based on the number of peopleing to us right now, I''m guessing that we''ll leave during the night."


    He didn''t look at Keith anymore and went back to staring at the women who were standing outside a well known local pub.


    Keith on the other hand, leaned back and directly fell asleep as he knew that the journey would be bumpy and getting quality sleep during that time would be hard. When he woke up, it was almost evening and the boat was also almost filled up.


    "Hey, would it be toote if I go and buy some food right now?" he shouted as he looked at the ticket guy, who turned around and nodded, "Go ande back here in an hour. We won''t be waiting for you."

 Chapter 46: Help Me Out, System!

    The journey on the boat was long and tiring, but Keith at least had something he could watch. A day after Keith boarded the boat, Vincent had managed to recover almostpletely.


    Once he felt fine, the first thing he did was to go back to the underground cave ring to find the owner, who was the middle aged woman.


    "Hey, I''m fine now. Who should I fight next?" He asked enthusiastically, wanting to unlock the unarmedbat skill tree as soon as possible.


    Keith, who was watching everything happen from far away, sighed, ''This guy... his parents most probably got killed in front of him and he himself got tortured too. Just how is he able to act so enthusiastic and cheerful?''


    Putting Keith aside, even Vincent wouldn''t know the answer as he was trying his best to not think about his past and the best way to do it was to blindly follow the system''s orders to get as strong as possible.


    Every time he saw a reward, he couldn''t help but get excited.


    Keith continued to watch and saw the womanugh loudly in response to Vincent''s question.


    "Hahahahaha, this wild kid! I''ll arrange a fight for you tonight, but keep in mind that biting isn''t allowed anymore and hmm, let''s see... if you win this fight, I''ll give you 10 Zen."


    Vincent nodded, unable to stop himself from grinning when he heard about the price money, "Wow that''s a lot!"


    "Yeah, but don''t expect to win easily. You''ll be fighting an awakened this time, but as for whom you''ll be fighting, that''s a surprise." she said, smiling back at him.


    Keith squinted his eyes when he saw this and immediately issued a quest as he was feeling refreshed and rejuvenated at the moment.


    Vincent paused when he saw a system screen pop up in front of him, but he yed it cool and talked to the woman for a few more seconds before leaving the ce.


    Only when he felt like no one would bother him, did he take a good look at the notification.


    [Event Quest: Bet 20 Zen on yourself and win the fight.]


    ept: Receive 20 Zen and temporary physical ability boost during the fight. The gains from the bet will be taken by the system.


    Reject: No rewards or Drawbacks.


    Quest Completion reward: None


    Quest Failure punishment: 5 Zen


    Vincent stared a the screen for a whole minute as he thought about the pros and cons of epting the quest.


    ''If I ept it, even though I won''t be getting any money at he end, I will still receive a buff which will increase my chances of winning. And if I do win, I''ll get 10 Zen as a prize anyways. But if I lose... I''ll have to give away most of my money.''


    He frowned as he walked back to the ce that the owner of the cage had lent to him for stay. He didn''t know when he would be kicked out, but until that happened, he decided to stay there for free.


    Keith silently watched him overthink about the quest through his screen and rxed as he didn''t bother too much with he the oue. He was technically gambling his own money through Vincent, so if he rejects the quest, then he wouldn''t have to risk losing his money.


    And in the off chance of Vincent epting the quest, Keith simply nned to support him as much as possible so he could win some good money.


    ''In both cases, there isn''t much for me to lose.'' he thought as he sent out another notification which wasn''t a quest but a simple message.


    [System Advice: Practice using your awakened ability in secret to get ready for the fight that''ll take ce at night.]


    Reading this, Vincent nodded to himself and rushed out of the room before heading towards the river. He ran along the river bank for a few minutes until he got tired and continued to walk for a few more minutes.


    Once he made sure that there was no one in the vicinity, he took a deep breath and opened his hand, making his palm face the skies before forcefully willing to create a fireball.


    Keith stared at Vincent''s constipated like face and chuckled before sending him another tip.


    [System Advice: Imagine a spark forming on your palm and once it does, imagine it turning into a me. If you want a ball of fire, imagine a vortex of air forming at the center of this me, sucking in the air from the surroundings.]


    "Ooooh so it''s like that." Vincent muttered as he followed the advice.


    He remembered the times when he used to y with the other kids of the vige, hitting two stones against each other to create sparks. The one who created the biggest spark would be he winner.


    He felt a little sad as he remembered the good times, but he pushed those thoughts away and imagined a spark forming on top of his palm, which happened almost instantly.


    "Hell Yeah!! I love you, battle god system!"


    The corners of Keith''s lips twitched, but he didn''t take Vincent''s words at face value and silently watched without responding.


    Vincent tried it once again and this time, the spark turned into a me. With a wide grin on his face which made him look foolish, he imagined a vortex forming at he center of the existing me which pulled the surrounding air towards itself.


    It made the me even bigger, but it didn''t exactly create a fireball.


    "Well, something is better than nothing." hemented, imitating one of the sentences that Keith used while he travelled with Vincent.


    He then stretched his arm forward with his palm facing a rock that was at he river bank.


    "Alright, here we go..." he muttered as he used his imagination as a tool once again to shoot he fire forward.


    The me shot forward, but disappeared in less than a second as soon as it left his palm.


    "Uh... what am I doing wrong?" he asked out loud before looking at the skies, "Hey system, help me out will you?"

 Chapter 47: Underground Cages Legend: The Bone Crusher

    Keith took on the job of a mentor and used the knowledge he had from reading the novel to help Vincent out. One of the reasons to his actions was that he himself did not have the opportunity to practice or try things out, so he decided to see Vincent do the trial and error.


    Hours quickly passed and once 2 to 3 hours passed after noon, Keith sent out a message for Vincent to take a break. Keith himself wanted to get some rest as he had to stay awake at night to watch the fight.


    Both of them took a nice nap, but Keith had some trouble sleeping as the boat wasn''t exactly stable. A few hours after sun set, he groggily woke up and grabbed a long loaf of bread that was wrapped up in a cloth and ced in his suitcase.


    He tore it into four parts and put three of them back into the cloth before he closed the suitcase. As he took a bite, he opened up his system to check what Vincent was up to.


    The kid was standing in the middle of the crowd while he watched a fight happened inside the cage. Both the fighters were bruised and bloody, but they continued to hit each other. Minutes slowly passed as Keith watched the two men fight while the spectators screamed random things.


    ''So damn deadly... I could technically fight there if I wanted to make money, but there''s no way I''m going to do that when I have other options.'' he thought and knew himself very well.


    If possible, he''d always avoid a direct conflict but there were still certain situations where he knew that he''d ball his fist to deliver a punch.But an underground cage fight was not one of those situations.


    Three more fights urred and each one of them went on for more than forty minutes with one of them crossing the one hour mark.


    ''These fights are kinda boring... but it''s hard to look away. The business makes sense now.'' he thought as he saw Vincent walk over to the stage confidently.


    The moment he put his foot into the cage, the woman began to shout, "And for the final fight of the night! Our widely known newbie, the rabid dog! Also called the battle dog! I mean battle god! Tonight, he''ll be facing against one of our favourite brawlers, please wee, the great Bone Cruuuuusherrrr!"


    Vincent felt depressed when he heard the announcement. He was called a dog twice while his opponent got a hyped introduction. He wanted to bury his face into the ground to hide from all the shame, but forced himself to stand still.


    From one end of the room, a normal looking guy walked in while wearing a cloth mask that covered his face except his eyes and nose.


    "Once again, everyone cheer!! Cheer for the Bone Crusher!!"


    "Oraaaaa"


    "Bone Crusshheeeeeeer!"


    "Marry meee!"


    "Break that doggy''s bones!"


    Bone crusher raised his arm up to wave at the people as he walked towards the ring. He then stopped right before walking into the cage and roared loudly.


    Keith who was watching his antics couldn''t help but find it funny as he didn''t really sound intimidating. Unfortunately, it was only after Bone crusher walked into the cage, did Keith understand what Vincent had to deal with.


    As Bone crusher roared, the people around him roared as well, hyping him up as much as they could, which added to Vincent''s nervousness.


    ''Oh god... epted the quest and bet on myself but now... ugh. Just what in the hell is his awakened abi- damn.''


    Bone crusher got into the cage and the staff locked the door behind him.


    "Urrrgh!" he let out a grunt with a smirk on his face as he kept his eyes on Vincent. Muscles grew at a rapid pace, making him look like a steroid abuser back on Keith''s old.


    His forearms were the size of an adult muscr thigh and his biceps were even thicker. His height remained the same, which made him look a bit funny to Keith but the awe in his heart didn''t change.


    Vincent cursed his luck that exact second as he stared at the muscle monster in front of him.


    "Can I give up?" he asked meekly, but no one could hear his words as the crown was screaming at the top of their lungs.


    ""CRUSH HIS BONES! CRUSH HIS BONES!""


    Just as he felt like running away, he suddenly felt a wave of warmth wash over his body. A system screen popped up in front of him too.


    [Physical Ability Boost Active.]


    [Bonus: Physical regeneration boost Active.]


    [System Administrator cheers you on!]


    ''Huh? A system administrator? Is that the person who controls my system? Or is this person actually a god?'' he asked himself. He had too many questions but almost no answers.


    ''I can try to ask the systemter, but let''s focus on the fight for now.'' he thought as he smacked his cheeks, trying to distract himself from unwanted thoughts.


    [System Advice: Dodge his attacks for a while to keep the tension up and once things get hyped up, go for the kill with your mes.]


    "ALRIGHTT!" Vincent screamed as he smirked at the guy in front of him, "Come catch me, you damn muscle piggy!"


    He was fried up, but he never expected the buff muscle man in front of him to be fast. Bone crusher closed the distance in just a second before sending a powerful punch towards the shocked Vincent.


    Seeing therge fist fly towards him, he brought both his arms forward and crossed them to form an X, hoping to block the punch. The next moment he felt immense pain assault his arms, but he also felt a certain warmth that counter acted the pain, healing him at an incredibly fast pace.


    ''This is the perfect time to adapt to his guy''s speed and strength since the system is giving me buffs. I won''t get a chance like this so easily.''


    As he thought, he dashed to the side and tried to circle around Bone Crusher, only to see arge muscr shoulder closing in on him.

 Chapter 48: Skill Tree: Unarmed Combat

    Five minutes had passed since Vincent began fighting the bone crusher, but he had already sustained quite a few serious injuries. The warmth in his body did not fade away, but instead the temperature rose to the level of it being ufortable.


    He could feel his body healing at insane speeds, but it was not enough to keep up with the damage that his body was taking. He dodged more than half of the punches, kicks and shoulder rams, but the ones that did hit, knocked the air out of him.


    Vincent stumbled backwards as he panted, feeling his arms burning thanks to the damage they took while trying to block bone crusher''s attacks.


    ''A little more.... just a little more...'' he thought, trying to force himself to fight the monster in front of him, but to his surprise, he saw another system screen appear in front of him.


    [System Administrator: End it, you idiot. NOW!]


    "Ah damn it!" Vincent cursed as he red at bone crusher, "If only you didn''t hit me so hard! Now I''m forced to end things."


    As heined, he raised both his hands to his sides, horizontal to the ground as his palms faced forward. Sparks immediately appeared in front of his palms and turned into huge balls of mes the next moment.


    "Wai- wait! I did not agree to fight an awakened!!! I give up!" Bone Crusher screamed, but his words fell to deaf ears as none of the spectators cared and nor did the owner of the underground cage.


    Time seemed to have slowed down for him as he saw Vincent slowly bring both of his arms together,bining both the fire balls into one with a confident smirk on his face.


    Before he knew it, mes shot out from therge fireball that was still floating in front of Vincent''s palms. Unlike before, they didn''t vanish as the fire ball wasn''t thrown out. Instead, he simply extended the mes towards his opponent, consuming the oxygen in the air in front of him to keep the mes alive.


    In less than a second, the burst of mes consumed Bone Crusher. No one could see what was going on inside the mes, but every single person could hear the blood curdling screams of the man who they considered as the legend, the unbeatable monster who had reigned the underground cave for more than five years.


    Three seconds. That was how long Vincent kept his fire going before he made the mes disappear. There was no more hulking monster in front of him, but instead, all he could see was a short man who had a lot of burn marks on his skin.


    His mes weren''t too hot at this moment, so the damage done wasn''t much. Even then, it had given the guy enough burns to put him out of order for a month or two.


    Vincent leaned back against one of the cage''s walls and sighed, "I won."


    Keith on the other hand, copsed on the boat, losing consciousness as he had used up too much of his mental energy to support Vincent in his fight.


    *******


    Next day, in the evening.


    Vincent anxiously paced around the room as he called out for his system.


    "Hey system,e on talk to me! I won the bet and got a total of 57 Zen and 15 braks. Didn''t you say that it belongs to you? If you don''t talk to me, I''ll use this money for myself."


    He had been trying to get his system to talk like before, but he received no response and no quests either. The only thing he could see was his regr system screen.


    [Host''s current stats:]


    Physique: Grade D


    Gic Physique Type: Endurance


    Awakening Status: Awakened (Fire creation and maniption)


    Skill Trees:


    Battle God''s Body: (Click to view Skill Tree)


    Awakened Ability Boost: Locked


    Unarmed Combat: (Click to view Skill Tree)


    Sword Arts: Locked


    Spear Arts: Locked


    Staff Arts: Locked


    Shield Arts: Locked


    Knife Arts: Locked


    Archery Mastery: Locked


    Throw Mastery: Locked


    War God''s inheritance: Locked


    [Battle God''s Body]


    1) Battle Instinct: The more you fight, the more you learn from the fight. This knowledge will be permanent and cannot be erased under normal circumstances. Current Grade: E


    2) (Locked)


    3) (Locked)


    [Unarmed Combat]


    Pick one style of unarmedbat.


    1) Fist Style:Bnced, aggressive with countery potential


    2) Palm Style: Defensive and focuses on Countery


    3) Kick Style: Aggressive, dominant and risky


    Since his system wasn''t responding to him, he decided to pick his style and try things out.


    ''Well... I don''t really like ying defensive and my body is gically endurance focused... which means that aggressiveness won''t go well with it. Either fist or palm style...'' he thought and didn''t think more about it.


    He immediately picked Fist Style and saw the contents on the screen change.


    [Modifying the skills to synergize with User''s awakened ability.]


    Vincent didn''t have to wait for long as a new skill tree appeared in front of him. He could only see three skills while the rest of them only had "???" written instead of their names.


    First skill was Fists of Steel and it branched out into two different skills. One was the Red Hot Fists and the other one was the ming Fists. He couldn''t tell much from just the names so he checked their descriptions instead.


    Fists of Steel: Grade F


    Increases the hardness of your arms from the fingers to the elbows, directly improving their defence and offence.


    Red Hot Fists: Open to select


    Increases the internal heat of your arms, making them resistant to mes and heat. Once a certain level is reached, every touch will cause severe burns to your target. The heat of the fists increase with skill grade.


    ming Fists: Open to select


    Creates ayer of mes around your arms, causing burns to the anything that they touch. The heat of the mes increase with skill grade.


    Note: Picking one will lock the other skill, so choose wisely.


    Just when Vincent was having trouble deciding, he saw something he had been waiting for almost an entire day.


    [System Advice: Red Hot Fists scale better with each grade, which means higher temperature and fire resistance. ming fists have their range increased with each grade, which means better versatility.]

 Chapter 49: Reunion and Food

    As the system administrator, Keith could take a look at the upgrades that higher grades gave, so he shared the information with Vincent the moment he woke up. The other passengers on the boat were worried about him, so it took him a while to convince them that he was fine.


    He saw Vincent immediately choose the Red Hot Fists and the other option got greyed out, locked forever.


    "Wooo, you''re back!!" Vincent dered, making Keith smile slightly as he took the money that belonged to him.


    His hand was inside his leather pouch, so all the 57 Zen and 15 braks were teleported inside it, sessfully managing to avoid suspicion. Once done, he put his pouch back into his suitcase and created a quest for Vincent.


    [Training Quest: Stay at Bromburge town for three weeks and fight against various opponents to gain experience.]


    Reward: Requirements for Awakened Ability Boost or Direct unlock for 10 Zen.


    The reason for the option was simple. Keith knew the requirements needed and due to this, he knew how hard it would be. On top of that, he liked money so he decided to make some money on the side while increasing Vincent''s strength.


    Once the quest was issued, he sent out another message.


    [System Alert: System will be be undergoing maintenance during this time, you will not receive any messages until then.]


    Keith then let out a sigh and chomped down on his bread, ''Talking to Vincent is fun, but he''s talks so much that it get''s annoying. Especially now that he thinks that his system has sentience. I should probably give him a quest to make some real friends in the future.''


    He was slightly worried about Vincent, but he didn''t bother getting too involved.


    For the next three weeks, Keith suffered on the boat while Vincent proactively looked for fights both in and outside the underground cage. This did worry Keith, but after observing for a while, he stopped bothering as Vincent had gotten a bit too strong for a regr person to win against him.


    Of course, things would be different if he faced someone with a firearm, but Vincent just asked for a duel and didn''t go around making people hate him.


    Keith got off the boat and headed towards the protection church that was in the town, only to see a few familiar faces in front of the Chuch gates.


    "Wait, is that Keith?" Edward asked, squinting his eyes so he could get a good look at him, but got his answer thanks to Brandon.


    "Yeah, looks like he''s been beat up. That damn kid, he should have just waited for us. He left early and still came here after us." Brandonined as he crossed his arms across his chest.


    Amelia stood with them silently as she red at Keith while ra went on to defend him, "Maybe he got into some trouble? I''ve never seen him this tired."


    By the time they were done talking, Keith got close enough to hear their words.


    "What are you doing here? I thought that you didn''t have toe." he asked as he looked at Edward who grinned and nodded.


    "I didn''t have toe, but I sent a request which was approved in under an hour. I''ll be one of the instructors for the training program, so let me tell you one thing. Get ready to experience hell."


    Keith groaned when he heard this. He already knew, but Edward''s reminder just made him want to run away.


    "Hahaha, now that''s the kind of attitude everyone has towards the training program. Now then, we just have to get to the capital and then we''re good to go. The church will let us borrow a carriage, so don''t think about the money."


    Hearing this, Keith nodded before asking, "Um, can I get some rest first? I haven''t eaten anything good for like... an entire month."


    "Aha, so you came her by the river route!" Amelia eximed feeling victorious as shepared her ownfortable journey to Keith''s, but he simply gave her a shrug and focused on Edward.


    "Sure, let''s go and have a nice feast. Though, this time everyone pays for their own food and drinks."


    Keith nodded and turned his head to look at a restaurant that was on the other side of the street, but just as he was about to rush there, Amelia grabbed his shirt, "You! Wait dammit. That ce is known for bad food. It''s better to find another ce."


    Hearing her words, Keith stopped resisting, "It''s bad huh?"


    "Yeah, everyone who goes there drinks a lot and they always cause trouble. The food is also bad and there are rumours of their food having insects in them." she exined with a serious look on her face as she looked at Keith whose frown deepened the more he listened to her.


    He turned to look at this team mates and dered, "Let''s go to another ce."


    "Well, why care so much about picking restaurants? Let''s just go inside the church and ask for food. They''ll feed us for free." Brandon nonchntly said, enlightening Keith who immediately nodded.


    Amelia clicked her tongue while Edward and ra shook their heads.


    "Why are you guys looking at me like that? We''ll be eating with the priests and not the knights. The food for the priests is much better." Brandon added and Edward sped his hands together.


    "Oh yeah, I totally forgot. Let''s go." he said and walked in with the others following behind him.


    Amelia inched closer to Keith, the annoyed look no longer on her face, "Hey, why were you actuallyte? You also look like you might pass out at any second."


    "Well... I got lost." he lied before continuing, "And I boarded a long boat since it''s cheap. It was ufortable and slightly stressful since I couldn''t get good sleep and nor was I able to eat good food. I mostly just survived on stale bread and didn''t buy jerky because the people on the boat liked to steal stuff."


    Hearing this, she felt pity and patted his back, "Well, I can give you my portion of meat if you want. But only for today."

 Chapter 50: Quest to Steal

    For the first time in almost a month, Keith finally felt like he had overeaten. As he got onto the carriage, he opened up his system screen and let it stay in front of him as he kept an eye on Vincent''s actions.


    "Ah man, I''m stuffed." he said as he scooted beside Brandon who took the corner seat.


    "Yeah, we can see." Ameliamented as she pushed ra inside before following behind her. Edward on the other hand, went ahead to sit beside the driver.


    Brandon saw ra''s hesitation and didn''t keep his thoughts to himself, "Hey, did you do something? I''ve never seen ra act this skittish."


    "Yeah of course he did. Remember the day we all went out to celebrate your survival? Yeah, that night these two- mmph!!" Amelia began bbering until her lips were pinched close by ra whose face was beet red.


    Brandon wasn''t dumb. Amelia had given him enough information to put two and two together.


    "Wow, that''s... unexpected." hemented as he nced at both Keith and ra. One who looked like he didn''t care too much while the other one looked like a ripe tomato.


    He nudged Keith and leaned towards him, "Hey, you should probably show some emotion here. Use this chance,e on."


    "Well... she has her own circumstances and wants to keep things temporary between us so I do not wish to make things hard for her nor for myself. I don''t want to get emotionally attached... especially in a romantic way when I already know that she''s going to marry some other guy. Back then I was drunk and didn''t have a clear control over my actions or thoughts."


    He didn''t bother whispering and made his true thoughts known to everyone as he kept his face as stoic as possible. It did hurt him deep inside, but he knew that this was the right thing to do. It was a fact that he was attracted to her, and he knew it more than anyone else. But that was all there was to it.


    Awkward silence settled in the carriage as no one else spoke after him, but that was until Amelia opened her mouth.


    "It was my fault... I was the one who pushed her into doing it." she said, not making eye contact with anyone, but the guilt in her voice was hard to hide.


    Neither Keith nor ra responded, but from the silent restrictive sobs that came from his right, Keith knew that the girl beside him was crying.


    He let out a soft sigh and hugged her from the side, "I told you already. One word. But you should also understand that I do not wish to get hurt over this whole thing. If you change your mind after having your fun and marry some other dude, I''ll be pissed and devastated. You do understand that right?"


    Keith had experienced something simr in his past life. He lost ess to his kids and his only house was taken away, leaving him on the streets. It wasn''t just his feelings that were hurt back then. He had lost more than just his heart.


    "I understand." ra said in between her sobs, but didn''t ask him to let her go.


    Keith then looked at Amelia who was smirking on the side and gave her a disapproving head shake, "You really enjoy watching others suffer, don''t you?"


    "Hey! I just don''t want her to marry that douche bag okay? He treats his concubines like sex ves and ignores them all the time. Heck, there are even rumours that he lets his sons join him at night. Now tell me that his guy isn''t messed up in the head. I don''t want her to suffer...


    I really don''t."


    Hearing her words, he sighed and closed his eyes, "Well, at the end of the day, it''s her choice. I''m going to sleep for a bit, so don''t wake me up unless it''s something important."


    The carriage ride was slightly bumpy, butpared to the boat ride, this was way better as the roads didn''t have pot holes in them. He slept like a baby for more than eight hours before waking up, only to see the other three sleeping soundly.


    Both of his shoulder were upied by Brandon and ra while Amelia slept as she hugged her room mate. Seeing that he was stuck, he gave in to his fate and look a look at the system screen.


    He read through the text and nodded to himself.


    ''So he''s at the capital of Morose right now. Perfection, but instead of cage fights, there are diator rings here. While death isn''t really a guarantee, the chances are extremely highpared to the cage fights that Vincent participated in until now.'' he thought as he frowned.


    ''rk never participated in the diator fights, so there''s no need to worry about him at the moment. Based on the timeline, he should currently be in the slum city. No matter what happens, I should make sure that Vincent avoids that monster, at least until he gets strong enough.


    Or I could technically send Vincent to join rk, but that guy is like a nuclear reactor. The moment he feels like someone is stronger than him, he''ll go for their lives, tch....''


    Keith lost himself in his own thoughts for a few minutes until a mischievous grin formed on his face, ''Right, I can always just give a system to someone around him. Currently, he most probably only has femalepanions, so it should be easy if I n things right.''


    The more he thought about his new n, the more excited and confident he felt.


    ''Well, let''s not make him wait and give him a quest.'' he thought to himself as he opened up a new system screen and created a quest.


    [Quest: Infiltrate Lady Grace''s red stone mansion and steal everything in her treasury. As long as you touch the money, it will be sent to the system.]


    Reward: 10% of stolen money and two free upgrades to any skill''s grade.


    Additional Rewards: Based on the value of the goods stolen.


    Quest Failure: System Hibernation for 6 months.

 Chapter 51: Battle Gods Regeneration

    Grace was the second daughter of the richest businessman in Morose Kingdom and was also the one who held the most power in her family. She was also a great artifact enthusiast, so Keith had some expectations for this quest.


    Money was secondary to him, but he put a lot of importance on artifacts as their importance was higher than even awakened humans.


    There were two types of artifacts, both formed through different means. One type was called the Blessed Artifacts while the other was called the Cursed artifacts.


    In simple words, artifacts were the amalgamation of an awakened human''s ability and emotions. Negative emotions gave birth to cursed artifacts while the blessed ones were formed from positive emotions.


    The emotions had to be extremely strong and thest condition was for the awakened user to die.


    Due to these strict conditions, finding artifacts was extremely hard. On top of this, the number of blessed artifacts were very lowpared to their cursed counterparts but this just increased their value.


    Cursed artifacts were called cursed for a reason and it was because, while the artifacts granted various powers to people, they also came with serious drawbacks such as reduced life span for each use, losing eye sight, etc.


    Blessed artifacts on the other hand, had no negative effects and this was another reason why their value was so high up.


    ''Let''s just hope that he gets something valuable. She should have pissed off the princess of Morose almost an year ago, so there''s a high chance of seeing Vincent escape scot-free. But if he does get punished, then it''s a direct ticket to the diator ring so there''s no problem there.'' he thought as he switched from text to video mode.


    Vincent stared at the quest notification with depressed look on his face, "You''re sending me out to such a dangerous mission and I only get two free upgrades? This is just unfair!"


    ''Indeed, it is unfair. But that''s just life isn''t it?'' he thought as he sent out a message, not trying to exin his ns and instead, he simply gave Vincent the pill of truth.


    [System Administrator: You are strong right now only because of the system. This is not a charity, so I do expect something in return. Take it or leave it.]


    [Quest Update: Upon ignoring the quest, user will permanently lose ess to the system.]


    "Wha... this is just.. damn it!" Vincent cursed, but Keith just watched as he knew how much he would have to invest into Vincent in the future to quickly make him a strong fighter.


    This needed a lot of money and resources, which he had no ns on emptying his own pockets for.


    ''I''ll use the money you give me for your sake. Though, I''ll pocket some for myself.''


    Keith didn''t regret his actions as the value of getting a permanent boost to one''s strength was iparably more valuable than money in his eyes.


    He watched Vincent throw a tantrum, but didn''t bother responding as he had expressed his thoughts directly. The rest was in Vincent''s hands.


    It took Vincent a few minutes to gather his thoughts and he finally agreed.


    ''Human greed knows no bounds. Luckily this guy is smart.'' Keith thought as he smiled and switched the screen back to text mode.


    Vincent sat in the room he had rented for a day and let out a defeated sigh, ''If I refuse, I''ll lose the chance of getting strong. If that happens, there''s no way I can get my revenge against Fabian and I also won''t be able to pay Keith back for his help.


    But in case I manage to fulfill the quest requirements, I should be able to get quite a lot of money which I can use to upgrade my physique and then I can use the free upgrades to improve my strength even more.


    I probably would have a choice if I didn''t piss off the system administrator.... haaaa, I don''t want to lose my lovely system so I''ll do anything to keep it. Even then, maybe I should show some kind of resistance towards the system administrator, or he''ll just push me around.''


    Keith could easily read his thoughts, so he simply chuckled and shook his head, ''Have fun trying. But don''t worry, I won''t give you a dangerous quest like this for a few months.''


    He then nced at his other screen and focused on the numbers beside the Tax Timer.


    00 Days: 00 Hours: 12 Minutes: 19 Seconds


    ''Welp, time to take some tax for now.'' he mused as he recalled the amount of money he had made through his indirect betting.


    ''There''s no need for money right now, so I''ll try picking something else.''


    Minutes slowly passed by and once the timer hit zero, he immediately checked his options before grinning.


    ''Looks like I can pick one of his skills.'' he thought as he read through Vincent''s stats and skill information.


    [Vincent''s current stats:]


    Physique: Grade C


    Gic Physique Type: Endurance


    Awakening Status: Awakened


    [Battle God''s Body]


    Battle Instinct: Grade D


    The more you fight, the more you learn from the fight. This knowledge will be permanent and cannot be erased under normal circumstances.


    Battle God''s Regeneration: Grade E


    Improves stamina recovery and boosts the rate of regeneration of wounds.


    [Unarmed Combat Arts]


    Fists of Steel: Grade E


    Increases the hardness of your arms from the fingers to the elbows, directly improving their defence and offence.


    Red Hot Fists: Grade E


    Increases the internal heat of your arms, making them resistant to mes and heat.


    ''Currently, my physique is only slightly worse that Vincent''s so there''s no point in picking that one. Battle instinct is a good option, but it won''t really help me out as much as Battle God''s Regeneration as I''ll be in the training camp.


    Based on what Edward said, they''ll mostly focus on physical training and won''t give too much importance tobat. Both skills under unarmedbat are the same as they won''t really help me as much as regeneration will.'' he thought before picking Battle God''s Regeneration.

 Chapter 52: Stealth Check Failed, Proceed to Bruteforce

    ''Hmm... can I see my own status screen like Vincent does?'' he thought and willed for it to happen, which it did. A new system screen popped up in front of him, but unlike the usual light blue, it was yellowish and almost golden.


    [Status Screen]


    Name = Keith Zenister


    Age = 22 years old


    Birthday= February 23rd 4642


    Current Year = 4664


    True Awakened Ability:


    System Administrator


    Copied Awakened Abilities:


    Danger Sense


    Libido and Sensitivity control


    Fire Creation and Maniption


    Special Skills:


    Battle God''s Regeneration: Improves stamina recovery and boosts the rate of regeneration of wounds.


    ''Hmm...'' he stared at the screen, ''Let''s see. Change Battle God''s Regeneration to just Regeneration. It''s better to keep things simple so there''s no need for fancy names.''


    Just as he thought of changing the name, it happened. The skill''s name changed and recing it was just "Regeneration".


    ''Now that''s convenient.'' he thought as he nodded before feeling bored once again. Theck of portable entertainment had begun to get on his nerves and there was nothing he could do about it.


    Frustrated, he closed his eyes and began thinking about the contents of the novel, hoping to remember something important but as he was in the middle of his imagination, he felt a slight nudge from his left where Brandon was sitting.


    "Let''s go and eat something."


    "Ah yeah, okay." Keith replied and absentmindedly climbed out of the carriage behind the others and saw Edward grab some fallen branches off the nearby trees for firewood.


    Keith simply stood in one ce and went back to getting lost in his own thoughts.


    ''Going to the capital will take us another three weeks... we''ll barely be there on time but at least I can sleep better this time.''


    By the time they were done eating their dinner, it was already dark. Keith kept his eyes on Vincent through his screen as the kid was on the move since the past few minutes.


    Keith went in first this time and upied the left most corner. Amelia got in next and behind her was Brandon and then ra wasst. While he was keeping an eye on his screen, he didn''t make the mistake of ignoring his surroundings.


    Due to this, he could easily see ra actively trying to get inst, trying to keep as much distance from him as possible.


    ''Oh well, it is what it is. There''s no point in dwelling over it even though she''s kinda hot ording to me. I''ll find someone else in the future... hopefully.''


    As a person who didn''t like forcing things, he finally decided to let things go. He also lost all hope of ra ever asking him to stop her marriage.


    ''Power first. Money second. Women third.'' he convinced himself even though he knew that he wouldn''t be able to stick to this rule. But he still had the confidence of having some self control.


    He made himselffortable by leaning against the wall on the left and focused on his system screen as he ignored everything else.


    Vincent silently stood behind the corner of a wall as he kept an eye on the Lady Grace''s mansion. There were four guards in total with two at the front of the gate and the other two patrolling around the mansion, outside the 3 meter tall wall that surrounded the entire property.


    Right after he gave in to his fate, thanks to a specific heartless system administrator, he rushed out to scout the area and based on his observations, he could tell that these four were the only ones guarding outside.


    As for what could potentially be on the inside, he had Keith feed him spective information.


    Based on everything Keith had told him until now, he knew that there was a possibility of servants and the butler havingbat capabilities but he was sure that there wouldn''t be any knights inside to protect anyone.


    ''No one other than the nobles or the royals are allowed to hire body guards or knights in Morose Kingdom. But that''s just officially. Rich people can easily use loop holes and hire bodyguards who can do other things such as gardening and cooking. Pretty cool actually.'' Keith thought as he watched Vincent walk along the road normally.


    Two of the patrolling guards took a turn and the two standing guards were now alone.


    As he got close to the guards, he suddenly jumped towards them as he grabbed a knife from his pocket. His right fist flew straight towards the guard in front of him and the moment it connected, he threw the knife at the second guy.


    His punch hit the guy straight in the jaw, knocking him down instantly while the other guy blocked the knife with his arm.


    "INTRUDER! INTRUDER!"


    "Ah damn, I knew it!" Vincent cursed as he immediately created a fire ball and shot it straight at therge wooden gate. The sheer volume of the mes was so huge that it directly pushed the gates open.


    As the gates burned, Vincent threw another fireball at the guard who had messed things up for him before rushing in. He didn''t care about a perfect job anymore and simply wanted to get his hands on the money and artifacts.


    He rushed towards the door and punched it open, leaving a ck burn mark that was the shape of his fist on the door''s surface.


    [System Information: Run straight until you reach the end. Take a right turn and continue running until you reach the end again. This time, get into the room on the right. It''ll be a very well maintained art storage room. Once inside, look for a clock and punch the wall right below it. If it doesn''t break, use your mes.


    You''ll then see a passage that leads underground, so just follow it.]


    Originally, rk would invade the mansion after the war ends and this arc was exceptionally important as the goal was to steal a Blessed Artifact. Keith had read this arc more than four times, so he remembered most of it.


    ''Well, Grace finds the Blessed artifact during the war so it''s highly unlikely for me to find it right now. But this is a chance that I just can''t let go.''

 Chapter 53: Mission Comes First

    Vincent followed Keith''s directions and rushed forward, but just when he wanted to take a right, he saw two women in maid dresses running towards him. On top of that, he heard footsteps from behind him.


    "God damn it!" he cursed as he shot out mes behind him with one hand and used the other to attack the women. He expected his mes to burn all of them down, but to his surprise, he saw one of the maids spew out water from her mouth,pletely neutralising his mes.


    "Now that''s amazing, isn''t it?" hemented sarcastically as he rushed towards the two maids, not bothering with creating any more mes as he knew that hey could counter him easily.


    But that was where it stopped. Thanks to his battle experience, he could tell that the water girl didn''t have any force behind her attacks. All she could do was spit out water and nothing more.


    As he closed the distance between them, he pulled his fist backwards, intending to hit them with his red hot fists. The moment he got close enough, he nted his foot on the ground to stop his momentum and let his fist fly forwards, aiming for the water girl a she was the only one who could counter him.


    Just as his fist was about to make contact with chest, he felt incredible resistance that stopped his punch in an instant. It felt like he had just punched a block of iron and he wasn''t too far from the truth.


    His eyes followed the palm that had grabbed his fist until he finally took a good look at the maid who was beside the water girl. Her entire skin was light brown, with the texture of a rock.


    "You aren''t touching her, not on my watch, kid." she said with a condescending grin on her face, but Vincent smirked back, "Hah... I didn''t really wish to resort to this. You guys might be awakened, but this mansion isn''t fire proof, is it? All you have to do is get beat up a little and you''ll be able to keep your lives even if you lose the job.


    But imagine what would happen if you let me burn this entire ce down."


    He read the contents on the system screen with confidence, but the n didn''t work as it was intended to. The girl simply sent a punch flying to his face, but Vincent quickly dodged it.


    "Oh well." he sighed as he saw a new system announcement appear.


    [Temporary Awakened Ability Boost Granted. Time Left: 5 seconds]


    He took a deep breath and jumped up, nting his feet on the stone girl''s torso before using all his strength to send her flying backwards.


    "Behold!!" he screamed excitedly as he saw the time go down to 4 seconds, "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH"


    As he screamed, thin streaks of fire shot out of his pores before forming into a fire barrier around him. The ball then shot outwards, burning everything in it''s path excluding the water and stone girls.


    The walls, carpets, ceiling, paintings. Not a single thing was spared as the hot yellow mes consumed everything they touched.


    2 seconds left, all the nearby corridors had been burnt with mes everywhere.


    1 second left, the mes had travelled to almost the entire mansion


    Andstly, by the time the timer finally ran out, the entire mansion was burning, both from the inside and the outside. As for the people who might die, Keith wasn''t too worried as he knew that most of them had means to protect themselves.


    As for the unlucky ones who couldn''t, there was nothing Keith could do and he convinced himself by thinking along the lines of "They''ll die after a few years anyways."


    Vincent was immune to his own mes and his red hot fists had a certain level or resistance to all mes. Due to this, he didn''t have too much of a problem in finding the hidden staircase that went underground.


    He jumped down five steps at a time to speed things up, only to spot an extremely gorgeous woman wearing a night gown, standing at the middle of the room.


    Both Keith and Vincent were stunned for a second, but when Keith saw her run towards one of the items that were on disy, he immediately sent out a message for Vincent.


    [System Alert: Stop her from reaching the items.]


    Vincent didn''t dare dy and went with a shortcut instead of running towards her. mes shot out from his palms and created a huge wall between her and the items. She immediately stopped, but by the time she turned around to look at Vincent, the only thing in her sight was a speeding fist.


    It hit her straight in the middle of her face, breaking her delicate nose but Vincent didn''t care. He pulled his fist back and sent out another hard punch, hitting her square in the jaw and knocking her out instantly.


    "Missiones first." he said as he looked at her with pitiful eyes before turning away. He didn''t even bother looking at the items on disy and just grabbed every single one of them. The moment his skin came in contact with them, they disappeared.


    He did this with every single item in the room before moving onto the two locked wooden chests. One touch, two touches and both the chests were gone with only a few briefcases on one corner of the room.


    Smoke had begun to fill the room thanks to the fire above, but Vincent didn''t stop midway and hurried towards the stack of briefcases.


    Once he emptied out the entire room, he took one deep breath of the polluted air in the room and rushed outside with all his strength. He climbed up the stairs and instead of going back through the route that he used toe here, he punched his way through the walls, breaking them one by one.


    Four wallster, he found himself on the side of the mansion and looked around, only to see all the servants and some maids getting rescued by the ones who had the ability to help.


    ''Lucky me, my path is clear.'' he grinned as he effortlessly climbed up the wall and disappeared into the night.

 Chapter 54: Birth of a Flaming Gladiator

    The items that Vincent touched, had vanished but hadn''t appeared in front of Keith. But his was exactly what he wanted and he also knew that this would happen.


    As long as something was rted to quests, for example; giving out things or taking things like money or items, then the system would keep it within itself. As for where it went, Keith didn''t know but he knew that he could take these items whenever he wanted to.


    But that was where the problem appeared. As long as he took the items out and brought them to the real world, he wouldn''t be able to send it back.


    ''I''ll wait until the training program is done and then start acting on my ns. For now, it''s better to let everything stay in the system as I can still use the money and items as rewards for Vincent.'' he thought and paused for a second before smiling, ''Actually... maybe this loop hole will work.''


    He then looked at Amelia who was holding onto him and sighed, ''Maybe I''ll try it outter.''


    After using his mental energy to boost Vincent''s fire output, he was very exhausted. The only reason he didn''t pass out yet was because he didn''t expend all of his energy and kept some as a reserve.


    Even then, he was extremely tired, so he stopped thinking too much and just drifted off to sleep after creating a quest for Vincent.


    ******


    Vincent ran along the streets and alleyways until he reached the 5 meter tall wall that surrounded the capital of Morose kingdom. Not wasting any time, he used his momentum to rush upwards but his limit was just four meters.


    The moment he slowed down and lost all of his built up momentum, he dug his fingers into the y mortar that was keeping the wall together. It basically worked like concrete and was used to holdrge chunks of rocks in ce while building walls.


    Thanks to his Fists of Steel skill, his fingers were tougher than an average human''s. But even then, he felt pain. Using this method, he pulled himself up the wall by digging his fingers into the mortar that was in the wall.


    Once up, he ran along the wall until he reached the part that faced the forest as the capital had threerge towns that surrounded it from three different sides. But just as he was about to jump down, he received a quest notification.


    [Quest: Birth of a ming diator.]


    Register your name in the diator ring and win 10 battles without using your awakened ability.


    Quest Sess: One Free skill upgrade + 100 Zen


    Quest Failure: Permanent Confiscation of User''s money.


    [System Alert: Rewards for the recent questpletion will be given tomorrow.]


    Vincent read both the notifications and sighed, "Anything for revenge, anything for power."


    Instead of jumping out the capital, he jumped back inside before he leisurely walked towards the diator arena, which was also called the diator ring or the ring of death.


    ''There are no restrictions on time, so there''s no need to worry too much. If I face a strong opponent, I''ll use my mes without any hesitation.'' he said to himself making up his mind as his life was more important than the system quest.


    But as he walked along the streets, he saw a bunch of girls wearing loose gowns that exposed their shoulders perfectly. He was currently at a bustling market street where there were multiple stalls.


    He just didn''t expect to see women dressed in such a way as this was something he never saw in his vige. Even the caravans that visited the vige twice a year did not sell these kinds of services.


    As he saw two women escort an ugly middle aged man inside, his imagination ran wild. He grabbed his leather pouch with his jittery hands and checked how much money he had.


    ''I have more than forty Zen... should be enough right?''


    He tied his pouch back to his waist and stuffed his hands into his pocket before walking towards the girls. Before he could say a thing, two of them walked forward and hugged his arms from both the side.


    "Hey young man~ looks like it''s your first time here, but as long as you pay 1 Zen, you''ll be in for a great night." she whispered in his ears in a sultry voice as he she brought the back of his palm to her own kitty.


    Vincent who was as hard as a rock by now, nodded stiffly before melting into the arms of the two women, "Yes please."


    Giggling, the two of them took him in and carried him upstairs, into a room before locking the door.


    Hours passed by and Keith woke up, only to see something he didn''t wish to see as he had left the system screen in video mode before sleeping.


    ''Just how many are in there... three four five and six... damn. Did they milk him dry or does he actually have monstrous stamina?'' he thought, bbergasted from what he was seeing.


    ''Wait just how much money did this kid even spend on prostitutes?'' he frowned and switched to text mode before scrolling up.


    [Vincent enters the room with two girls and ejactes the moment one of them touches his penis.]


    [Seeing that he''s still hard, the girls get on top of him and start their work.]


    [He shoots thrice in an hour and is absolutely exhausted. The two girls cuddle him to sleep before drugging him.]


    [They walk out and bring four more girls before staging an act to scam more money from Vincent.]


    ''Ah so that''s what actually happened. Well, he should learn from his mistakes so I''ll just see what he does but if they try to scam too much money from the kid... heh, I guess time will tell.''


    He put the matter aside for now and sent Vincent his 2 free skill unlocks. He felt most of his mental energy getting drained, but he didn''t mind it as the more he used his mental energy, the more his total capacity increased.

 Chapter 55: Free Skill Upgrades

    Vincent walked out of the "Pleasure House" with his face full of smiles even after he got scammed. They had forced him to pay 6 Zen and Vincent did it without any hesitation before deciding toe back again.


    As for the person who was watching him through the system screen, he was both frustrated and dumbfounded at his stupidity.


    ''As long as he doesn''t waste too much money, I guess it should be fine.'' he thought before sending out a side quest.


    [Side Quest: Pervert''s Research]


    Ask around and learn more about all the brothels in the capital.


    Note: Do things in moderation.


    Quest Rewards: Divine Truth


    Vincent nced at the system screen and nodded before heading towards the diator ring. As he got close, he asked his system mentally.


    ''Hey, can you tell me some more about the diator ring? Is it the same as a cage fight?''


    [diator Ring is simr to a cage fight, but it is also different. There could be multiple fighters in the ring at the same time and the usage of weapons is also allowed for certain fights. There are two different categories, one is the prisoner fight and the other one is volunteer fight.


    War prisoners and people whomitted crimes will be allowed to fight for their freedom and in this version, the option to give up doesn''t exist. The fight will end when there''s only one person alive in the ring.


    When ites to the volunteers, they will be allowed to give up but this category isn''t too famous.]


    Vincent read the information and nodded as he walked to the Arena. As he got close, he saw a lot of small stalls that sold merchandise and food. He didn''t waste any time and ignored them all as the quest came first.


    There were two entrances, one for spectators that was a staircase that went upwards and the other one was a wide corridor that had a wooden board that said "Staff and Volunteers only".


    Vincent walked through the second entrance and once he managed to cover some distance, he saw a bony old man sitting on an old wooden chair that looked like it was about to break at any moment. He was too busy digging into his nose as he rxed with both his feet on the table that was in front of him. Vincent had to resort to clearing his throat loudly to get his attention.


    "Oh, a new guy and a young one on top of that." hemented as he flicked the booger that was on his finger, "So, why are you here? We are not hiring any staff right now."


    "Volunteer."


    The old man chuckled before shooing him away, "Ay kid, just leave. If you want to make money, there are other ways. Feel free to set up a stall outside or something."


    Vincent could tell that the guy simply wanted him to stay away from danger, but the diator ring was his best option to grow strong right now. The more he fought, the more his skills would level up and the higher his skill levels were, the stronger he would be.


    "Hey grandpa, please just get me registered. I''m very strong even though I look like this." he said as he flexed his muscles.


    Compared to the time Keith saved him from Fabian, he had grown a lot. He had grown by a whole seven inches in height and he didn''t look as skinny as before even though he wasn''t too muscr. Chapter Find:


    The old man shrugged before scoffing, "Hmph, if you wish to throw your life away, then who am I to stop you? What''s your name? Not your real name but the one you want people to call you here."


    Before Vincent could respond, he saw a new message pop up.


    [System Suggestion: ming Gigolo]


    "ming gig-" he read it out loud and paused as he grit his teeth, "ming Fist."


    "Okay done. Your name has been registered, but there''s onest step left. We need your thumb stamp and to do that, you''ll have to pay 1 brak."


    Vincent nodded and ced a small coin on the table, after which the old man took out a small ss bottle filled with ink and used a sponge to absorb some ink. He then lightly ran the sponge over Vincent''s thumb before pointing at the bottom of the paper that was on the table.


    Once he got the thumb print, he gently put it inside a file before looking up at Vincent, "When do you want your first fight to ur?"


    "As soon as possible would be great."


    "Hm... fine,e back here in the noon and keep this in mind. Your life is worth more than anything money could buy."


    Vincent nodded with a smile on his face, "Yes, I understand. If I''m about to lose, I''ll just give up."


    After saying that, he left the ce and decided to find a ce to rent as he could tell that he''d be staying in the capital for quite some time. Compared to a monthly rent for a small house, inns were expensive.


    As he walked around the capital, he took a look at his system, wanting to im his quest rewards.


    Once he imed them, a system notification popped up.


    [100 Zen has been transferred to your leather pouch. You had received a total of three free skill upgrades.]


    [Calcting 10% loot reward... please wait.]


    Not wanting to waste time, Vincent opened up his status screen and upgraded just one skill, which was the Fists of Steel. It was at E grade, but after the upgrade, it directly went up to B grade.


    Keith who was busy picking the rewards for Vincent, didn''t notice this but once he was done picking, he looked at what Vincent had done.


    ''Oh this fucking idiot. It''s harder to increase the grades as it goes up so it would have been better to level up battle instinct as it''s at D grade right now. He could have brought it to A grade.


    Heck, he could have also saved the free upgrades and used them once one of his skills got to A grade. Oh well, the more idiotic he is, the more I can get him to do quests using free skill upgrades.''

 Chapter 56: Shifting Blame

    Renting a ce was extremely easy as the only thing that was required was money. As long as the tenant payed money in advance, then they would be allowed to stay.


    Kazak empire followed the weekly rent schedule while the Morose Kingdom went for monthly payments.


    Keith waited until Vincent found a ce to rent and once he moved in, the 10% of the money loot was delivered.


    [System Message: 10% money loot delivered. Total amount delivered is 10,400 Moros.]


    Moro was a standard Morose Kingdom''s currency. They had rich gold mines and ess to many other metals other than silver, so they took inspiration from Kazak Empire and created a standard paper money called Moro.


    Each one was equivalent to half a Zen or 10 Brak coins.


    The smallest currency was literally called a bronze coin and it''s value was the same as 1 brak. As for the one above Moro, they used gold coated coins instead of notes and each one of the gold coins was worth 2 Chrons. Chapter Your:


    Thanks to this, the mostmonly used currency in the Morose kingdom were the bronze coins and Moros.


    While Kazak Empire made notes of different values such as 1 zen, 5 zen and 10 zen, the Morose Kingdom stuck with just one and that was the Moro note which did not have any number on it.


    As for the reason why the old man at the arena epted the 1 brak coin from Vincent, it was because the weight of 1 brak coin was the same as 1 bronze coin.


    On top of that, the diator arena had a lot of nobles as regr spectators and these nobles payed with braks instead of the kingdom''s bronze coins but when it came to Zens and Chrons, no one from the Kingdom epted them.


    Even the rent of Vincent''s current house was paid with Braks.


    When it came to the brothel that scammed Vincent, they did indeed take the Zen notes but they didn''t bother trying to ask for Moros as they didn''t want the knowledge of their scam to spread outside.


    Their target, Vincent might have been dumb enough to fall for it, but the locals would easily put two and two together. Why risk exposing themselves when they could just stock up on Zens from tourists and exchange them through back channels.


    As for the underground cage''s owner who paid Vincent with Kazak currency instead of Morose currency, it was because it shared the border with Kazak Empire and a lot of people in the town epted both kinds of currency as the influence of Morose kingdom wasn''t too strong in Bromburge Town.


    As long as the money could be used to trade for various things, they would ept it with open arms.


    Vincent also opted for Braks and Zens as this was what Keith had given him.


    The moment he saw the five digit number, he felt his head go dizzy. He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes before taking another good look at the system screen to make sure that he wasn''t seeing wrong.


    Just as he was in a daze, one briefcase appeared out of nowhere along with four stacks of notes and fell to the floor. Seeing this, he hurriedly opened the and saw it filled to the brim with notes.


    "Oh great system administrator, I love you! If there''s this much money involved, then I don''t mind risking my life again."


    Seeing that there was no response, he shifted his attention back to the money in front of him and grabbed a few stacks before smelling them.


    "Ahh, I love this. It''s time to enjoy myself!" he dered as he pushed the briefcase under the bed and hid 390 Moros under the mattress before leaving the house. After locking the door from the outside, he ran off to have fun, not having even the slightest idea that Keith had just scammed him royally through the y of words.


    The quest mentioned 10% of the money stolen, but that just included money.


    Top tier merchants, aka the rich ones, converted most of their gold coins into gold ingots. Usually, they kept some just in case, but now that the news of a potential war had reached their ears, they went ahead and converted everyst one of their gold coins into gold ingots.


    Lady Grace''s father only kept the Moros because they were the most used currency after bronze coins. In fact, the money and gold that was hidden in the mansion only consisted of around 20% of his wealth that was in the form of hard money and gold.


    If properties andnd was included, then that would be another matter entirely.


    Thanks to the wordy, Keith only had to give Vincent 10% of the money that was stolen. Which means, he had managed to steal a total of 140,000 Moros but that was just money.


    When it came to gold, there were a little more than a hundred ingots with each ingot weighing 1 kilogram.


    [A/N: I''ll update the Aux chapter with new currency information so feel free to check it out if it''s hard to understand from text.]


    Keith saw Vincent run into the streets and switched from video to text mode once again as he had no interest in watching a kid rail skeletons in the form of female humans.


    He turned to look at Brandon who had woken up, "I''m hungry."


    "I''m hungry too..." he replied before whispering, "Why don''t you push Amelia to me and go ask Edward to stop for food?"


    Keith knew what Brandon wanted but he didn''t feel like listening to him as he understood how much Amelia wanted to stay away from him. Especially when it came to getting physical.


    "Sure." he said and immediately shook Amelia awake, pissing her off in an instant but before she could do anything, he put the me on Brandon.


    "Not me, it''s Brandon. As the head detective, he ordered me to tell you to use his shoulder to lean on while you sleep. I''m just following orders." he said innocently, directing her anger towards Brandon who looked absolutely betrayed.

 Chapter 57: Accursed Marriage

    "You want me to lean on you, huh?" she hissed before biting his shoulder, only to feel like she had bitten a hard bone.


    "Tch, that annoying stone skin." she cursed before turning to look at Keith, "Let''s make seating official now. Brandon will take your ce in the corner and you''ll sit beside him. I''ll go next and the one beside the door will be ra. Is that fine with you?" Chapter Discover:


    Keith shrugged, "Your wish is mymand, maday." he said imitating ngson''s ent, immediately making the frown on her face disappear. She smiled before shaking her head, "Idiot."


    "You two, this is just unfair!" Brandon appealed but Keith simply pointed at Amelia, "Gotta listen to the Laday."


    Three of them bickered, waking up ra in the process before all of them got out to ask for breakfast.


    Edward groggily opened his eyes, grabbed a small basked and passed it to ra, "Last night''s food. Eat that for breakfast."


    Such was life when it came to travelling long distances in this world and for Keith who had lived his entire life with rtivefort, this would take some getting used to.


    As he chewed on the stale t bread that was simr to a Pita bread, he thought about his powers.


    ''Hmm... I still have a long way to go until I can spin the wheel again.'' he thought as he brought out his gacha wheel that hadpletely greyed out and had no partitions like before.


    The energy that was required for giving out quests was simr to mental energy that was depicted in the novel, but the energy that was needed to spin the wheel gave him different vibes.


    Every time the system user managed toplete the main quest of the white system, he felt like he was growing in size but this was just a feeling. In reality, his size stayed the same.


    ''It felt like a different sense simr to sixth sense and instinct but different in a way too. I only feel it when the system is extracted after questpletion and get used to it in a matter of seconds. After which, I''m unable to get the same feeling again.'' he mused, feeling pretty tired thanks to expending most of his mental energy to give quest rewards to Vincent.


    ''Once I manage to umte enough of this mysterious energy in the future, I''ll have to try creating my own system using my own rules and imagination. Though the possibility of this working is pretty low, there''s nothing wrong in trying.''


    Without his knowledge, he subconsciously frowned as he delved deeper into his theories and Amelia spotted it while she was gossiping with ra.


    Since all of them were walking around the caravan, taking in the fresh morning breeze that gently swept along their skin, it was more of a coincidence for anyone to spot Keith''s current expression.


    "Give me a second. It looks like he''s bothered by something." She whispered to ra and was just about to go to Keith when she felt her hand being grabbed.


    She turned around and saw ra looking at her with an awkward expression, "Isn''t it better to just leave him alone? I mean, he looks like he wants to be alone."


    Hearing this, Amelia said nothing and simply stared at her friend for a few seconds before losing her cool, "Look, I know that I made a huge mistake by telling you to sleep with him, but you were not drunk. Your divine protection is strong enough to keep your mind intact.


    I messed up, but that doesn''t change the fact that you were the one who acted upon it. You did it because you wanted to. I didn''t force you, remember? I simply gave you an option and you took it.


    What goes on between you and Keith stays between you two. I don''t mind it if you ask me for my help, but he''s a friend too. In fact, he''s the only guy that has ever seen and treated me like a normal person.


    Brandon wants to sleep with me and so does every single pervert of a man I''ve ever met! Edward is married and keeps to himself but he''s more like a father to me. Though, it feels like I''m talking to another Brandon when he''s drunk."


    After saying what was in her mind, she let out a long and drawn out sigh, "Listen, both of you are my friends. Like not the fake friends but actual friends who I deeply care about. It hurts to watch you guys act like strangers to each other. If you want, I can talk to him.


    I''ll make sure that he never takes any romantic or sexual actions towards you. He''s a gentleman who has tremendous control over his actions as far as I''ve observed. You can at least talk to him right?"


    ra stood silently, feeling a lot of emotions at the same time.


    Guilt, for losing her virginity to her co-worker when she was supposed to marry someone else. Even more guilt after listening to Amelia''s words for not treating Keith fairly.


    Sadness, for being forced and obligated to marry someone she barely knew, and also for trying to push Amelia into distancing herself from Keith.


    Anger, for getting reprimanded due to her actions.


    Andstly, confusion. Unable to discern what was right and what was wrong.


    She felt utterly lost as she stared into Amelia dark brown eyes.


    "I.... I need some time." she said softly, trying to hold back her tears and quickly walked away as she felt like her heart was getting squeezed by an ethereal hand.


    Amelia watched her leave and took a deep breath to calm down her messy, jumbled up emotions, "I hope that she thinks it through and makes a good decision. Oh great Seraphina, our holy shield and goddess of protection... please protect my friend from her own thoughts. I beg you."


    ''It''s way better to stay unmarried that to marry that asshole, ra. You mighte to hate me, but I''d rather have you hate me if it means I can stop this ursed marriage from happening.''

 Chapter 58: Amelias Reasons

    Amelia ran her palms from the top of her face to the bottom as she suppressed her negative emotions and thoughts before putting on an amicable smile that she always had.


    She headed towards Keith and patted him on his shoulder from the back, "What''s up sir philosopher?"


    "Oh it''s nothing..." he said softly before making something up, "I was just wondering how different the Baroma Kingdom ispared to our Kazak Empire. Like... they''re so orderly and follow so many rules that it feels like there is no importance given to freedom.


    Every person''s job is selected by the higher officials from the royal court, mothers give up their babies readily if the Kingdom passes the order. Businesses don''t really exist either but somehow, in just two hundred years, they''ve managed to surpass the Kazak empire in the domain of technological advancements.


    It''s both impressive and scary at the same time."


    "So that''s what you were thinking about. Well, better not to worry about it you know? We are affiliated with the Chuch, so they don''t dare to touch us." she said as she looked up at him, only to see him nod and not say anything in return.


    ''Yeah, even though they didn''t touch any of the churches, the god of war went ahead and stirred the pot, wreaking havoc. After this war, this country would cease to exist and the only reason for this is the existence and growth of a new god.'' Keith mused, not intending to help or antagonise any party in the war as hecked the means to do so.


    Rather, his only goal was to reap as many benefits as possible so he could start preparing for the inevitable event; the fight that almost wiped out humanity.


    Suddenly he felt a light smack at the back of his head and snapped out of his reverie before turning to look at Amelia who looked pissed.


    "Are you even listening to me?"


    "Of course." he lied instantly, "You were asking me how big my co-"


    Before he couldplete his sentence, the girl let her fist fly towards his gut without any intention of holding back.


    "Krof! Damn..." Keith cursed as he bent forward, clutching his stomach with both his hands, "I as just joking, you witch!"


    "...." Amelia didn''t say anything and simply stared at him for a few seconds, "You... why do you only make dirty jokes in front of me? I''m a woman and you''re a man!"


    Keith thought about it for a second before nodding, "Yeah, so?"


    "What I mean to ask is, does it not bother you when you spout such jokes even though there''s a high chance of making me angry?"


    "Hmm..." he hummed, "You see, there''s a difference between anger thates from hatred, annoyance or frustrationpared to the anger thates from momentary embarrassment. I don''t make these jokes to make youugh, Amelia. It''s to piss you off.


    Making you angry gives me a sense of aplishment and that''s what true friendship is, isn''t it? The fact that you try to hit me instead of deciding on ignoring my existence proves my point.


    This is what friendship between true bros is. You and me? We''re bros for life."


    It was all bullshit and was meant to piss her off as the concept of "bros" didn''t exist in this world. But surprisingly, her short fuse didn''t go off and instead she just stood in ce, lost in thought as she frowned.


    "You''re telling me that I''m like a brother to you? Like... I''m a man?!" she eximed after she digested the absurd words that Keith had just fed her.


    "You... you... ugh! Dammit, I hate you! I shouldn''t have tried to change ra''s mind again but I''ll go fix it now. I''ll tell her to stay away from your ass!" she growled and just as she was about to leave, Keith grabbed her arm.


    As she tried to get herself free from him, he pulled her arm, forcing her to look at him.


    "I was just messing around. If you don''t like it, then I''ll stop making jokes like these. But I want you to answer this question, does it really bother you that much? If it does, then okay. But if it''s just because you think that my words would make you feel embarrassed in front of others, then that''s a different matter. First tell me what the actually problem is."


    For the first time, Amelia considered the question and thought about it beforeing to a conclusion almost immediately.


    ''It''s not really embarrassing, not even if he makes these jokes in public... no, the main problem is that this bastard gets me flustered all the damn time! I don''t know how to respond to his dumb jokes and it makes me my mind go nk. Chapter Experience:


    It''s like ying a mysterious game against a master while not knowing the rules of the said game. I''ll always lose!''


    After realising the true problem, she clicked her tongue and red at Keith, "Tch, do what you want but keep in mind that every time you make those dumb jokes of yours, I''ll be cursing you and your ancestors in my heart."


    "I want to say something but I''d rather not." Keithmented as he kept his thoughts to himself before stuffing thest bit of bread into his mouth.


    "Anyways, let''s get back to the carriage."


    She shook her head in response, "Brandon goes first. That horny dog just wants to get into my pants."


    Keith turned to look at Brandon who was busy chatting with Edward and asked, "Would you have dated him if he had ns on making a family with you?"


    "Nope. That''s just one of the reasons... he''s just not my type. He''s strong and all that, but he''s like a barbarian when ites to women. He sees a chick, he goes behind that chick. He used to date a woman who was the daughter of a bakery owner but guess what he did?


    He went ahead and began to flirt with her mother in front of her and her father. He didn''t leave her sister nor the neighbor alone and I personally, wouldn''t stand such disrespect."

 Chapter 59: Meeting The Father

    The journey was boring but Keith now had two sources of distraction and entertainment. One was Vincent and the other was the newspapers that they bought whenever they passed through a town or city.


    He watched Vincent''s first fight in the diator arena, but it was pretty boring as it was a 1v1 fight and Vincent won it in under a minute.


    Days passed by while Keith passed his time in boredom and on the other end, Vincent fought a handful of battles as he got addicted to sex.


    Luckily for Keith, the journey didn''tst too long as they managed to reach their destination in time. It was the Goddess of Protection, Seraphina''s Church that was built along with the other churches in the Capital City of Baroma Kingdom, name Baroma City.


    ''Heh, talk about not having creativity. God of technology and advancement, Baroma helps create a kingdom and gives it the same name as his own. Then his people name the capital behind him too.... oh well, who cares about the name as long as the ce is doing good.''


    He got off the carriage and stood in front of the church gates along with his team, staring at the huge building in awe.


    ''The church in Auberg District feels tinypared to this one....'' he mused as he stood in one ce unable to move as his gaze shifted to the statue of Seraphina. It''s height was 80% of the church building, but it looked grand and domineering.


    Keith also felt a wave of peace and quite for the first time in weeks, but only when he turned to look at his colleagues was he able to figure out the true reason for this feeling. It was because every single one of them had their mouths shut.


    As he was the first one who escaped the state of reverie, he grabbed his belonging and walked in.


    Seeing him move, the others also hurriedly grabbed their things and followed behind him until Edward ran forward, "Oy Keith wait!"


    He overtook Keith and frowned, "I''m the instructor here! No one is allowed to enter the Church''s property without an instructor guiding them. If you don''t follow this rule, you''ll get cut into bits."


    Keith stopped in his tracks and looked around, unable to see anyone nearby and that was when he remembered a part in the novel that he had overlooked thanks to how little it was mentioned.


    ''Curses? Or is there some kind of overly strong awakened here?'' he thought before opening his mouth, "... I don''t see anyone here."


    "It''s like a curse that''ll activate as soon as you break the rule. Anyways, you and Brandon grab my arms and you guys can just ce your hands on my shoulders." he said as he stood right in front of the gate.


    Keith and the others followed his orders before getting dragged by him into the Church''snd.


    "Is that it?" Keith asked as both his feet touched the grass that was within the gates and Edward nodded, "Yeah that''s it. Now, let''s go inside and have a nice feast before resting. It''s been a tiring journey and luckily, we managed to get here three days in advance."


    "Oh yeah, all four of you will be sharing the same room. You''ll be in the same team and represent the Auberg district''s branch along with a few other church members who do different jobs."


    Brandon nodded when he heard Edwards words before remembering something, "Oh and Keith,e with me to change your status to an official detective instead of a trainee. You''ve done well until now."


    Saying that, he looked at Amelia, "Can you do us a favour and take Keith''s belongings to our room?"


    Seeing that Brandon had gone from his regr attitude to a professional one, Amelia kept to herself and nodded, "Sure."


    "You owe me a drink." she said as she winked at Keith and grabbed his suitcase and briefcase before following behind ra. Keith turned away from her and looked at Brandon, "Let''s go."


    "Head Detective." Brandon said and Keith nodded, "Shall we go then, Head Detective?"


    Brandon nodded curtly before walking over towards the confessional booth. He passed his ring and a bronze badge through a small slit and waited.


    "Head Detective Brandon?" an elderly voice came out and Brandon replied with a yes before going on to the main topic.


    "Yes father. Today, I''m here to promote a trainee to an official member and would love to have a father from the main church do the honours." he spoke softly, eliciting a chuckle from whoever was inside the confessional booth.


    Silence ensued until Keith saw an old man walk out from the back of the confessional with a wide grin.


    "Oh you''re a handsome young man, aren''t you? Very tall too, mhm." he said and nodded to himself, "But first, can you tell me the reason why you decided to pick the holy goddess Seraphina? Why not go for others?"


    Keith thought for a bit before smiling sheepishly, "I''ve always been enamoured by her beauty. Her teaching have always resounded in my heart so when I got the chance to join, I grabbed it. Truth to be told, I care more about my family and friendspared to strangers. But because of this, it is hard for me to follow her teachings perfectly.


    If I was given the choice to pick whom I''d save between a hundred random people and my sister, then I''d pick my sister every single time."


    The priest nodded, "You''re a believer who isn''t blinded by divinity. That''s a great thing to have, my child. Great thing indeed... you, go back to your team. Me and this kid here will be heading over to the Arch bishop to have a long talk about the role he''ll be ying as an official member."


    Keith stood in ce as he smiled at Brandon, "I''ll see youter then, head detective?"


    "Yeah, and looks like you''ll be getting a huge promotion."


    Nodding, Keith replied, "Hopefully, it''ll be something I like."

 Chapter 60: Found You

    Keith followed the priest and walked along multiple corridors before entering a medium sized room that was almost empty. It only had one bed and a study table with a chair in front of it.


    On top of the bed, sat a girl who looked no older than twelve.As soon as the door opened, she turned her head to look at a familiar face and then there was someone she never saw in her entire life.


    "Miss Archbishop, I''ve brought someone who isn''t blinded by the goddess'' divinity. His thoughts are independent and at a first nce, it looks like he fits the criteria." the priest said as he saw Keith close the door behind him.


    "Grandpa, just call me like you usually do... I don''t like this. Big brother, you don''t mind it do you? After all, grandpa says that you aren''t blinded by divinity." she said as she looked up at Keith with her yellow eyes.


    They were mesmerising, but Keith didn''t focus too much on them and nodded, "I don''t have any problems."


    The priest chuckled as he walked over to her and patted her head, "Well then Maria, what do you think about him?"


    Maria smiled cutely before looked at Keith and then instantly nodded, "Mother Seraphina gives her approval. Hmm.... yep, he should be an inquisitor of our church. That fits him the best based on mother''s words."


    "But his awakened ability is not offensive, is it? Danger perception will mostly help him with evading danger." the priest said as he frowned.


    "Mother asks you to trust her, grandpa."


    "The goddess'' wish is mymand." he said before going silent.


    Keith on the other hand watched everything and knew even more as Maria was an extremely important character who would be the High Priestess of the Protection Church two years after the war ends.


    ''The ability to talk to a goddess directly.... she''s not the daughter but an apostle of Seraphina and based on her words just now... it looks like Seraphina knows about my powers. It''s either that, or she''s expecting me to go through a second awakening.


    I need more information toe to a solid conclusion.'' he though inwardly before asking Maria a question, "If I get promoted to an Inquisitor, I''ll have to leave my team right?"


    "Yep!" Maria eximed as she pointed her finger at him, "But if you want, I''ll let you pick someone to be an inquisitor with you. And... if you help me out with a few things, I''ll help you with a second awakening. Both you and your partner will receive it."


    "Wow... a promise from the archbishop herself. There''s no way I''ll decline that offer, but what do you want me to do in return?"


    Maria smiled, her eyes carrying a hint of determination, "I''ll tell you if our church gets the first or second ce during this training program. All the churches willpete against each others byparing the results of their people and I want to see us at the top.


    We''ve been stuck at the third ce for decades if not centuries and I just want that to change for once."


    Keith nodded, "I''ll do what I can."


    A second awakening was a phenomenon that only urred when certain conditions were met and these conditions were extremely strict and different for every person. But there was an exception to this, and that was the involvement of a god''s blessing.


    The second awakening would either enhance this ability by a huge margin or give them an extra branched out ability that had connection to the first one.


    For example, if a person''s awakened ability was creating threads, then their second awakening could potentially give them the power to create thousands of threads at the same time while also super enhancing the strength and durability of each thread.


    As for a branched out extra ability, they could potentially be able to transform into a beast with a lot of fur and gain ess to use this fur as an extension of their powers. This way, they would gain a boost to their speed, strength and other senses while also being able to use their fur to attack, defend, trap, etc.


    This kind of person would be way stronger than someone who could transform into the same animal but without the ability to control their fur, they''d just lose in the condition that both of them had simr experience or mastery over their powers.


    And for Keith, this was extremely valuable as he expected it to boost his already over powered ability to another level. On top of that, he had the option to awaken someone else from his team too.


    ''ra... nah, using such an opportunity on her is a waste. She''ll just go marry some random guy and settle with him, wasting the entire second awakening. Edward is a bit too old at the moment so it''s better to not go with him. Brandon has potential but we''re not exactly close so there''s that.''


    One by one, he eliminated them until he reached Amelia.


    ''She''s chill but I''ll have to spend some more time with her beforeing to a conclusion. If things go well, I can get her to awaken a second time before giving her a system to copy her upgraded ability.


    There''s also the fact that her ability falls under the mystic category just like ra and never once has the second awakening of any mystic ability disappoint in the novel as every single one of them turned out to be extremely broken in one way or the other.''


    He slowly made his ns and decided to talk to her and observe her for the two months time period that the training program would take.


    While he was thinking, Maria hurriedly grabbed a book from the study table and wrote something on thest page before tearing the page.


    "Mother told me to show this to you." she said as she handed it over for Keith to read.


    Found you, my one and only Fwyd Chicken!

 Chapter 61: Preparations: Taking Responsibility for Shopping

    A few minutester, Keith walked out of the room with his thoughts upied.


    ''If things go well, then I''ll request a second awakening for Amelia, but if it doesn''t, then I guess I''ll pick Brandon as he too has potential. His stone skin might get upgraded so much that it might have the potential to negate almost all damage. If I copy this, then it won''t really be a loss.''


    He walked back to the main hall of the church and saw Brandon waiting for him near the main door.


    "Why are you here?" Keith inquired as he walked towards him.


    Brandon sighed, "Well, we''re not allowed to sleep in the church apparently. We''ll be taken to a forest and the whole training program will be conducted there, so the others have gone out to buy some essentials."


    "Is that so... can''t we just stay in an inn until the program starts?"


    "I suggested that too, but Edward wants us to practice from the get go. Better to be prepared or whatever... Anyways, let''s go."


    Keith nodded in response and was just about to follow Brandon when he remembered something important, "Wait, I forgot to exchange my money."


    "Well, you can just exchange it here. Go through that door right here and walk along the corridor until you reach a door that has the word Treasury written on it. You''ll be able to exchange it there." Brandon said as he pointed at the wall on the right, the one that was closest to the main door.


    Keith thanked him and went straight to the door as he ignored the two other doors that were on the same side of the main hall, but were further away from the main door. He followed the instructions and managed to find the room.


    He pushed the door open and saw a middle aged nun sitting on a chair while she was busy knitting.


    "Excuse me, I''m here to exchange some of the Kazak Empire''s currency to Baroms."


    Without even looking up at him, she said, "ce the money you wish to exchange on the table."


    Keith silently picked a few Zen notes from his leather pouch and counted them before putting them on the table.


    The Nun stopped Knitting and took the thin stack of notes before counting them.


    "Twenty Zen, that''ll be four hundred Baroms." she said and put the 20 Zen notes into a wooden box before taking out four stacks of green notes.


    Keith took the money and stuffed it into his zer''s pocket before leaving the room.


    Baroma Kingdom only had one kind of currency denomination and that was the Barom notes. Each one''s value was the same as one Brak of Kazak Empire.


    Keith felt nostalgia when he saw these notes as they reminded him of his previous life. Just one currency that everyone used and was a simple way of doing thingspared to having three different currency types like the other two kingdoms.


    He got back to Brandon and followed him to the market until he met the girls who were busy shopping for clothes instead of buying the stuff that actually had to be bought.


    "You two... were you guys just wasting time?" Brandon frowned as he looked at the two of them, but Amelia shrugged, "We were waiting for you two. I didn''t want to buy something only to get reprimanded by you for not buying something better. Since you''re the leader of the team, we thought that it''ll be better for you to make the important decisions for the team."


    "You just want to dump all the work on me!" Brandonined before turning to look at Keith, "Well then, you''ll be our treasurer for the day. Keep an eye on the money that we have and stop us if you think that we''re spending too much."


    Saying that, he shifted his attention to ra and Amelia, "You two, give him your money. Each person has to contribute one month''s worth of their sry."


    He then took the lead to hand over his quota, which was a total of 240 Baroms as Brandon''s weekly sry was 3 Zens, which tranted to 60 Baroms or Braks a week.


    Following his example, ra and Amelia gave out 280 and 140 respectively. Keith calcted the amount he had to pay in his mind and took out two stacks of 100 Barom notes.


    He ced one stack on the pile of notes given by others and handed it to Brandon, "Hold it for a bit while I count."


    It took him a few seconds, but once he was done, he put 40 notes back in his pocket and put 60 on the pile, bringing up the total to 820 Baroms.


    Once done, he took all the money back from brandon and divided it into two parts before putting each stack into each one of his pant pockets.


    As for his personal money, which was a total of 240, he had it all hidden in his zer''s inner pocket.


    "We have a budget of 820 Baroms... isn''t that an overkill?" Keith asked, feeling slightly hesitant to throw away so much money just to buy a few things.


    Amelia sighed, "Well, we''ll be getting double of our sries for the next two months and Edward stressed a lot about not sparing any money on preparations. He basically told us to buy anything that might help us out in the forest."


    "Welp, I''ll keep track of money and leave the buying to you guys." he said, deciding to take aid back approach to this.


    "Yeah, leave the buying to Brandon so we can me him when things go wrong. Heh." she said, smirking evilly as she looked at Brandon who patted Keith''s back as he shook his head, "When you have subordinates like her, it doesn''t matter how many good things you buy. All of them are bound to turn out useless."


    Sensing another potentially long argument between the two, Keith decided to change his approach and took things into his own hands.


    "Let''s go, I''ll do the buying. But just in case there''s something you guys want me to know, don''t hesitate to speak out. I''m not really too knowledgeable about camping and stuff."

 Chapter 62: Shopping Spree

    The first ce Keith stopped at was the store that sold different fabrics. Tents weren''t ready made and had to be stitched by hand, so this was the only way to get things done. If one needed to build a temporary shelter in the wild, then they''d need good quality cloth.


    Keith spent a total of 600 just on the cloth, ropes, threads and needles, which were then given to Brandon to carry as he was the strongest among the four of them. Then, they moved on to other essentials like leather canteens, which were basically water bottles of this world.


    They bought two for each one of them, totalling up to 8, which cost them 80 Baroms.


    "We need some utensils. They need to be small but also not too small." ra said as she pointed at a store that sold kitchen essentials.


    They then spent another 40 Baroms on utensils before stopping as they didn''t know what else they''d need.


    "Hmm... I guess I''ll scour the market and buy things that might be useful." Keith said, and Brandon nodded, "Good idea. I''ll take these back to the church while you guys do your thing. I suggest splitting up."


    Keith agreed, "Right. I''ll divide the money equally."


    As he said that, he counted he remaining money he had before looking up at the two girls, "I only have a hundred Baroms left."


    "Make it forty, thirty and thirty. ra and I''ll take thirty."


    Nodding, Keith did as he was asked to and gave them the money before heading out to search for things that could potentially help out with camping.


    Like always, his thoughts wandered until he remembered something important.


    ''I need something that can purify water, but based on the stuff I learnt from the novel, there''s nothing ready made for me to directly buy so I guess I''ll have to settle for DIY now.'' he thought as he went straight to the butchers.


    After asking around for prices, he decided to buy onerge goatskin leather for 25 Baroms and then proceeded to find something that''ll help him start a fire.


    ''Matches should be easily avable... but let''s see if there''s something advanced.'' he thought as he walked along the busy streets.


    He had the ability to make fire whenever he wanted to, but he didn''t have any intention of exposing this ability in front of others.


    After visiting various shops, he stopped at one ce, which was the store that sold ss jars, vials, statues, etc.


    "Do you guys make magnifying sses?" he asked and the owner of the stall nodded, "Yes sir, we do make them. Would you like a custom one or standard size?"


    "I need a custom made one. Is it possible for you to let me join you while you make it? I wish to make some calctions before settling on the dimensions of the lens."


    The guy nodded before pointing at a small house behind his stall, "Feel free to go inside. My master is inside, making some ss statues. You can talk to him about your requirements."


    Keith nodded and walked into the house, only to find himself in arge room. It was more like a mini factorypared to a house. Inside, he saw a middle aged man working with molten ss and decided to not disturb him.


    Instead he looked around and spotted a book, which he decided to use for his calctions. He took out a pencil from his pocket and began to note things down.


    ''I need a bi convex lens, one that bulges out on both sides as this is the best one to focus sunlight at one point. Next thing I have to keep in mind is the diameter. The bigger the diameter, the more sunlight I can use to generate heat but it can''t be too huge. I should be able to carry it easily in my pocket.'' he thought as he began to scribble onto the notebook.


    He had learnt about lenses in his high school, but he never expected it to help him out in real life and it never did. Until now, but this was a different world altogether.


    After noting down the important details like focal length, diameter and lens type, he turned to look at the guy who was working on a ss statue, only to see him staring at him.


    "Oh hi, I''m here to give my custom order and the guy outside told me to talk to you about it." he exined as he handed the notebook to the guy before continuing, "I wrote down the details in here. Basically, I just need a lens and if you give it a handle like a magnifying ss, then that''d be great too."


    "Easy stuff." the man said as he took a look at Keith''s notes before nodding, "Looks like you know your stuff, huh? By the way, each lens will cost you 3 Baroms."


    "I''ll take two then."


    Hearing his words, the guy nodded, "Okay, feel free to take a seat right there." he said as he pointed towards a wooden chair.


    Keith thanked him and took a seat before watching the artist do his job. He first grabbed a thick ss b and cut a medium sized rectangle out of it before making two circles.


    Once that was done, he tossed them into the furnace to let them heat up so that they could be malleable enough for him to work with. It took some time, but once the time was ripe, he took out the semi molten ss and began shaping it with just a few metal spats.


    To Keith who was used to seeing people use machines to get things done easily and efficiently, this was like watching a master at work.


    Both the lenses had gone through the shaping process, but now there was nothing much to do but wait, which Keith happily did as he needed some alone time to think about a few things without having two idiots fighting all the time near him.


    [A/N: Feeling burnt out... but gotta grind 4 more chapters forst priv tier. *sob*]

 Chapter 63: Preparations Complete

    Keith met up with ra and Amelia back at the church. Originally, he didn''t have much of an expectation when it came to Amelia but surprisingly, she had teamed up with ra, pooled their money together and had bought something that Keith had absolutely forgotten about.


    Two axes, Two machetes, 6 knives andstly, two big buckets of animal fat tallow.


    "ra pitched in some extra month as we ran out. Fat tallow will be very useful right? We could use it for cooking, lighting andstly, it''s easy to carry since it''s mostly solid when it isn''t exposed to heat. Anyways, what did you get?" she asked as she skipped over to him and grabbed the goat skin leather.


    Keith pointed at it and exined, "We need to make something that can help with filtering water. I had an idea so I bought this. Also," he said as he took out two magnifying sses from his pockets, "We can use these to start a fire. I still have some money left so I''ll go back and buy two more things."


    He gave the magnifying sses to Amelia before running off to spend the rest of the money as there still was one thing missing.


    ''If we need a fire during the night, we''re cooked. Same thing if it get''s cloudy... just why in the hell are we supposed to do all the preparations ourselves? Can''t they just give us the essentials and start the damn thing?'' he cursed inwardly even though he was having fun doing the shopping.


    Strangely it felt rxing, but this feeling only applied when he was alone. Having any of his other team mates didn''t trigger this mysterious peacefulness.


    The first thing he did, was to go to a shop that sold matches. He had spotted it earlier, but didn''t bother buying any as he had expected the girls to get these. But since they didn''t, he decided to do it himself.


    For just 8 Baroms, he managed to buy multiple boxes of matches along with three striking surfaces.


    Unlike his old, the matchboxes here didn''t have striking surfaces on the side. Instead, they came separately. Each striking surface was slightly smaller than the size of his palm and each box of matches contained exactly thousand match sticks.


    In total, Keith bought 5 boxes of matches and 3 striking surfaces.


    ''I only have 4 baroms remaining in my budget, but I guess I''ll pitch in my own money like ra did.'' he thought as he headed over to the next stop and bought a medium sized tin can filled with wax.


    Wax was pretty pricey as they only sold natural wax, which was the bees wax. Due to this, Keith had to pay 10 Baroms just for a medium sized can of wax.


    Once he had everything ready, he rushed back to the church, only to see Amelia waiting for him at the gate.


    "Let''s go behind the church. That''s where we''ll be camping until the training program officially starts and funnily enough, we also spotted people from the other churches doing the same." she said as he got close enough.


    Keith nodded and walked to the back of the church with her. All the churches were built side by side and they shared the 100 acres worth of freend behind them. It was mostly used for training their knights and pdins, but now a part of it was given to their official members from other branches.


    Even though there were multiple tents pitched on the ground, there was still a lot of free area for the knights to train.


    "Brandon went out to get some food for us, but we''re supposed to get things going while he''s doing his part." Amelia said as she sat down with ra and began stitching tworge pieces of cloth together.


    Keith had picked some really dense and thick fabric as he wanted the tents to stay strong even when facing strong winds. As for the problem of weight, Brandon''s existence solved it.


    "I''ll coat some matches then... is there some firewood here?" he asked as he looked at the two of them.


    Surprisingly, ra was the one who responded instead of Amelia, "You should ask someone at the church. Usually, they have a lot stocked up in their store rooms as they have to regrly cook meals for the knights."


    "Thanks." Keith responded politely before he rushed back into the church and asked around until he was given arge bundle of firewood, which he was unable to carry thanks to being physically weak.


    ''If not for the journey, I would have managed to eat enough to reach the physique of that soldier guy.'' he thought inwardly as he sighed.


    With no other choice left, he went ahead and asked one of the knights to help him out which they readily did.


    Back in the training ground, Keith started a fire and used some stones to form a U shape around the fire. He then ced the tin can of wax directly on the stones and watched it melt.


    It took a few minutes, but once all the wax had turned to liquid, Keith began to dip the head of the match sticks into the wax and ced them on a cloth to dry. It was to protect them from water as he didn''t know what kind of environment he might have to face in the forest.


    There were too many matches, so it did take him a long time to finish his job but by the time he was done, the other three were done eating their dinner. The sun had already gone down, but luckily ra and Amelia were done with their stitching too since the job wasn''t too hard.


    They simply had to stitch tworge pieces of fabric together and that was it. Of course, it wasn''t perfect at the moment, but it would do for the night as they were forced to sleep here thanks to Edward''s orders.


    Once Keith was done with his dinner, he joined the others to pitch the tent. It took them a few minutes, but they managed to seed.


    "Oy Keith,e with me for a bit. You and ra need to sort things out."

 Chapter 64: Claras True Plight

    Keith followed Amelia and ra to a bar that was close to the church and ordered a few drinks before getting to the topic.


    "Okay, so first let me exin everything. ra can''t get into the details thanks to a contract that binds her from doing so and I''ve gotten permission from her to tell you about it." Amelia began after downing half of her beer bottle.


    "Sure... but how do you know about the details when ra can''t talk about it?" Keith asked as he leaned back against his chair before ncing at ra who didn''t took as ufortable as she usually was.


    Amelia nodded before smirking, "I''m the princess of the night. She''s bound by the contract but that bar isn''t. I simply got the information from him after giving him a few smiles."


    "Anyways, let''s get to the juicy bits." she began, "ra''s father used to be a Bar but he messed up real bad and had to borrow some money from others. Unfortunately for him, the only person who agreed, was this Bar.


    His name is Timothy Sanders, just for the record and well... he lent ra''s father a lot of money which ultimately, he was unable to pay. Timothy agreed on letting the debt go as long as ra marries him and back then, he was twenty nine years old and ra was barely eight.


    It''s infuriating, but her father convinced her to make an oath to marry him and he also included an oath of secrecy. There is one other way to break off this marriage and that is by paying off the debts.


    She''s been saving up like an idiot but even if she turns fifty years old, she won''t be able to pay off the debt. The sum of money is that huge. Did I miss something? Uh.. oh yeah, ra''s father lost all of his property and his title as he was unable to pay off a debt directly.


    You should know about this rule right? Bar is a temporary noble title but it has very strict rules. One of them is to not have any unpaid debts. He cheated his way through by selling his daughter but this didn''t escape the eyes of the royal family and they immediately took away his title.


    Now that I''ve exined everything, I think you two should talk it out among yourselves. I''ll be here to give you information on things she''s not supposed to talk about."


    Keith took a long deep breath and nodded before asking, "This... Timothy guy, does he have a son named Timmy?"


    Amelia raised her right eyebrow, "How did you know?"


    "I''m taking that as a yes." Keith said instead of giving her an answer.


    ''Timmy... it was a shot in the dark but to think that the character who appeared in the novel was really ra. Skin as pale as a ghost''s... I wasn''t too sure before, but now I''m a hundred percent certain that this was ra and based on what Amelia said... it only means one thing. In the novel, she had already married Timothy.


    But that should be on the surface level. Timmy... to think that I''d be able hear this bastards name again.'' he thought as he recalled information on the guy.


    ''He had awakened at the age of three and could spot the people who would awaken and the potency of their awakening. A very useful ability in his hands as he managed to make an entire fighting force of just awakened people and even rk had trouble getting to him.


    It looks like he told his father about ra and got him to make the deal instead of forcing ra''s father to pay the debt. Maybe I''m reading too much into this... but oh man fucking hell.


    Amelia did say that Timothy included his sons while he had sex with his concubines so I can''t really exclude the possibility. Let''s put the dangers aside for now and focus on the present.''


    He let out a sigh and looked at ra, "Did you meet Timmy before? Like before the deal happened? I mean the oath."


    She silently nodded, "I met him in a social gathering when I was seven years old. I think he was eight or nine back then."


    Keith tapped the table for a few seconds as he contemted something and then came to a decision.


    "I''m going to tell you guys something so listen carefully." he said as he leaned forward and then whispered, "Timmy is an awakened who can tell whether someone can awaken or not and do you want to know something even more important?"


    It was a question, but he didn''t give them any time to answer, "He awakened it when he was three years old. In his eyes, normal people and awakened people do not have any kind of aura around them.


    But the ones who didn''t awaken yet and would do so in the future, did have an aura. Based on the size of this aura, he can determine how strong a person''s awakened ability will be."


    "Wait, so he''s the reason why ra was involved?" Amelia whispered back, but she sounded absolutely furious and bamboozled at the same time.


    "You tell me. ra must have some siblings right? I''ve never heard of a noble family having just one child." Keith responded as he turned to look at ra whose expression was aplete mystery to Keith.


    Hearing his words, she nodded, "I have an older sister and a younger brother. I was wondering why my father didn''t get my sister engaged but I guess I know the reason now... she never awakened."


    "Oh god..." Amelia muttered as she downed the rest of the bottle while Keith kept his eyes on ra, "How much is the debt?"


    "Nine hundred Chrons...." she said softly, her eyes almost tearing up but she did a good job holding them in.


    Keith nodded silently. For the first time, showing his serious face to both Amelia and ra as he thought about the absurd situation.


    ''If it was some other guy, then I would have just helped ra out with whatever she had nned out for her future, but now that Timmy is involved, there''s no way I''m letting him get his hands on her.'' he said to himself inwardly as he stared at his bottle of beer intently.

 Chapter 65: Drunk Amelia is a Dumb Amelia

    Keith had learned from experience, to not spend too much money on a woman thanks to his ex wife. But ra somehow got tangled with Timmy, whom Keith absolutely hated to the core and was also slightly afraid of.


    ''He won''t be too strong right now, but that''ll change in the future. Even though ra did die in the novel, she stalled rk for enough time so that Timmy could save his people. One person died to save more than fifty awakened... a good trade in any sense possible.


    I have the money to help her out, so why not? Also, I still kinda like her but I think it''s better to make things clear and set up some rules before things get messy. I don''t want her to misunderstand.'' he thought to himself as he looked up at ra.


    He took a deep breath, "I know someone who can help with the money but that''s not the important part here as I''m sure that he''ll help out. Let''s fix the thing between us first ande to an agreement, okay?"


    "Okay." ra responded as she nodded.


    She looked both nervous and confident at the same time as she watched Keith observer her silently for a few seconds.


    "Mhm... okay, let''s start with me first. It''s clear that I find you attractive, yes?" he asked and she nodded.


    "Yes."


    Keith nodded back in response, "Good, now let''s get to the main part. You''ve been making thingsplicated and confusing until now, but I just want to know what you think about me. Don''t talk about love right off the bat. It''s aplicated emotion that doesn''t pop up in just a few days."


    "I... I do find you attractive. Very attractive..." she said softly and just as she was about to continue, Keith cut her off.


    "Great, now let''se to an agreement. We clearly like each other, but we need some time to get to know each other first. So there won''t be any talks about marriage for a few months or maybe even two to three years. I want to know a lot more about you and I don''t want to do that in a hurry, so it''ll take time.


    Let''s start off as lovers first, but I hope that you can keep in mind that romance alone isn''t enough to keep a rtionship stable. I want us to be friends first before lovers. Sex alone doesn''t help. If I just want sex, I can visit a brothel." he said, not hiding anything and smacking her with his words.


    Amelia stomped on his toes when she heard his words, "You''re insensitive!"


    "I''m realistic. Only when we know and understand each other, will we be able to avoid most problems rted to marriage. One of the mostmon ones is misunderstanding and distrust, which can be sorted out as we spend more time together."


    Before Amelia could counter his words again, ra opened her mouth, "I''m fine with it."


    Keith nodded as he turned his head to look at ra, "Great. Now I just want to know one thing. Why did you decide to tell me about this? Was it just because you wanted to escape from Timothy''s clutches, or was it because you wished to be with me?"


    "Both... but I never really had any intention to tell you anything. That was until we got to this ce. When you went to get your promotion, I heard a voice in my head.


    It was feminine and calming. It gave me the feeling that the goddess was talking to me. The voice... it told me that talking to you will solve my problem.


    I... I''m not lying. I know it sounds flimsy but it did happen." she said, her voice losing confidence by the second as she watched Keith stare at her intently.


    Keith shook his head, "Nah, I believe you. I got a message from the goddess too... but oh well, I really didn''t expect this."


    He then looked up at the ceiling, knowing that two people were watching him right now. He didn''t bother with Seraphina and instead had the author of the novel in mind.


    ''My lovely fucking author... damn red snow, you''re trying to fix the mistakes you did in your book by using me aren''t you?''


    And the moment he thought of that, for the first time in a few months, he finally felt his pinky twitch. Danger sense had activated and the source was the beer bottle in front of him.


    He let the bottle go, but didn''t fail to notice the word that had formed on the ss thanks to condensation of water.


    No


    That was the only thing it said, but Keith trusted it.


    ''Oh well, I guess you have your reasons then.'' he thought and sighed before looking at the two girls, "Well, now that we settled things between us, cheers! For a new found friendship!"


    The three of them clinked their bottles, with Amelia''s being empty but she poured some water into it and drank anyway.


    Once the three of them were done emptying their drinks, they got up and headed back to the church but on the way, Amelia being Amelia, didn''t stay still and pushed ra into Keith.


    "Well well well, I really did not expect an angel to fall into my arms did I?" Keith yed along by blurting out a cheesy ass line as he put his arms around her shoulder.


    ra was shorter than Amelia, standing at 5 foot 5 inches, or in other words 165 cm while Amelia was 170 cm. The difference wasn''t much, but it was there.


    ra''s face went beet red when she heard his words and even though she wanted to smack Amelia, the feeling of being held in his arms felt like a way better deal. As they got closer to the church, Keith let her go.


    "Let''s keep things a secret for now. I don''t want the others to find out." he said as he looked at the two of them, but Amelia looked angry when she heard him.


    "What? Are you saying that because you''ll feel humiliated if people see you with her?"


    "No, you dumb bitch. There are people here who are loyal to Timothy and Timmy. If the news gets to their ears, it''ll only mean trouble."

 Chapter 66: Vincents Efficiency

    Amelia shut her mouth when she heard his words, looking apologetic, "Okay that was my bad, I''m sorry."


    "It''s fine. Next time, instead of rushing into conclusions, maybe it''ll be better if you just ask in a normal way without pushing me on me."


    "Yes, sir! Your wish is mymand!" she said, mimicking Keith''s way of "agreeing".


    Shaking his head, he walked into the churchpound and directly headed into the tent that him and his team mates had pitched up. Thanks to therge amount of cloth, the size of the tent was also huge.


    It was more than enough for 6 people to sleep side by side, but when it came to just four of them, they could sleepfortably as there was enough of extra space. As he lied down on the thin cloth that was on the ground, he opened up his system screen and checked what Vincent was upto.


    ''He''s at a brothel again... he''s a lost cause.'' he thought and sighed before his gaze hardened, ''You forced me to do this. I told you to do things in moderation but you''re fucking around for like three to four times a day.''


    Keith was annoyed. He had picked Vincent as he thought that he had potential, which he did. But thanks to the changed Keith had done, by giving him a system, things had changed drastically.


    His own personal growth was also dependent on Vincent at the moment, so he decided to take things seriously and not let the guy ck off anymore.


    [Daily Quest Created: Fruits of Hard Work]


    Partake in at least one fight a day.


    Do 100 Push-ups without any breaks


    Do 100 Sit-ups without any breaks


    Do 100 Squats without any breaks


    Run for 10 km without any breaks


    Eat threerge meals that consist of 50% meat.


    Rewards: If done continuously for two weeks, one free skill upgrade will be gifted.


    Punishment for Failure:


    Day 1,2 and 3: Immense body pain


    Day 4,5 and 6: Reduction of Penis Size by 1 cm


    Day 7: System Self Destruction


    Note: If quest ispleted on alternate days, quest failure count will not be reset.


    Once Keith was done designing the quest, he sent it over to Vincent without bothering whether he was busy having his snu snu time or not.


    Vincent, who was almost about to reach the "peak", saw the new quest screen pop up right in front of his eyes, blocking his vision entirely. Unlike the past when it was translucent, it waspletely opaque this time.


    ''Damn why a quest at this time?'' he felt annoyed, but he still checked it out, only to feel depressed as he read through the punishments.


    ''What the hell?'' he thought as the quest notification disappeared. He was no longer in the mood to have any more fun, so he pushed the girl''s face away from his family jewels and got up to leave.


    As he wore his clothes, he took out two Moro notes and gave it to her.


    He left the ce quickly as he cursed Keith in his heart, ''Damn system administrator! You don''t have to force me to stop just because you can''t have sex, you jealous bastard!''


    [System Administrator: I don''t rely on prostitutes for my needs and I have a satisfactory control over my sexual urges, thank you. Give me a second, I''ll prepare another quest for you.]


    ''Oh fuck you! I don''t care if you''re a god or not, but fucking, fuck fuck!!'' Vincent cursed in his heart as he violently kicked a stone that was on the road, sending it flying while also hurting his own toe.


    Before he could recover from the pain, he saw another system screen pop up in front of him.


    [Quest: Rob the Sanders'' Jewellery Store in the capital.]


    Rewards: None


    Punishment for Failure: Reduction of Penis size my 2 centimeters.


    Reading this, Vincent stopped walking and looked up at the sky, "Just why in the hell are you treating me this way?! Just what in the hell did I do wrong?"


    Keith didn''t respond and just closed his eyes, hoping that Vincent could figure that out himself.


    ''If he does, I''ll change the reward to something nice but if he acts ignorant, then I''ll continue being an ass to him.''


    That night, Vincent went from loving his system to absolutely hating it to the core. But unfortunately for him, Keith didn''t care.


    The next morning when he woke up, Keith was pleasantly surprised as he saw a system notification floating in front of him.


    [User Vincent haspleted the Quest.]


    ''Well, at least he''s efficient.'' he thought as he checked the text logs to see what Vincent had done while he was fast asleep.


    ''Hm, so he basically just broke in during the night when the store was closed and robbed it clean. Pretty good, and he also seems to have an idea of what he did wrong.


    Well, technically it isn''t really wrong in any sense but I just don''t want him to be doing nothing. I''m just doing this for my own benefit since I invested such a strong system in you.''


    As he thought about it, he decided to give Vincent a reward as he seemed to have realised what he had done wrong.


    Vincent was currently in his room as he stared at therge bag filled with jewellery. The look of frustration on his face could not be hidden, but all of a sudden, he let out a sigh.


    Then he went back to read the system notification once again.


    [System Administrator: Congrattions, you have realised the mistake you''ve made so I won''t make things hard for you. I simply want to see you get strong, but if you don''t work hard, then I''ll have to push you to do so in my own way. Rewarding through.]


    [System Gift Box: Would you like to open it?]


    Vincent didn''t wait and immediately answered with a yes.


    With a bright sh, the bag filled with jewellery vanished and taking it''s ce was a singletex glove that was dark red in color.

 Chapter 67: The Three Trainee Inquisitors

    The red glove was one of the three cursed artifacts that Keith managed to get from Lady Grace''s mansion. It allowed the user to shoot out mes through the glove or cover the glove with mes, but in return, it burned the hands of the user.


    Keith sent out the pros and cons of the cursed artifact to Vincent, but the guy was too busy staring at the item in awe.


    Seeing this, Keith had a feeling that Vincent would do something dumb, so he decided to sent out more instructions.


    [System Administrator: Do not use this item unless absolutely necessary until your Red Hot Fists get to Grade S. Even then, you should use it sparingly. But as long as you manage to bring that skill to SSS grade, then you''ll be able to negate almost all of the effects of the curse.]


    "No problem! Love you system administrator!"


    [System Administrator: I''m a guy.]


    "It''s fine, I still love you!"


    Keith shook his head with a wry smile and sat up before looking around him. It didn''t take much for him to know that he was the only one left inside.


    From the outside, he heard familiar voices but along with that, there were also a few unfamiliar ones. Curious, he walked out of the tent and saw three new people crouching on the ground as they tried to use the magnifying ss on a thick piece of wood.


    "What are you guys doing?" he asked as he walked towards Brandon and Amelia who had the second magnifying ss and were trying to do the same thing.


    "We''re figuring out how to use this damn thing..." Brandon said as his gaze was focused on the tiny dot in the wood. Keith shook his head and looked at the three new guys.


    He inched closer to Amelia and whispered, "Who are these guys?"


    "Trainee Inquisitors... regr inquisitors are higher ranked than both Brandon and regr detectives like us, but trainees are ranked on par with normal detectives. They''ll be joining our team, apparently."


    Hearing this, Keith nodded and pped loudly to gain their attention, "I was the one the brought that thing, so let me show you guys how to use is."


    He then grabbed the one that Brandon was holding and looked at Amelia, "I need a knife."


    With a slight nod, she took out a knife that was strapped to her belt and gave it to Keith who used it to scrape out some wood shavings.


    As he did his work, he asked, "Where is Senior ra by the way?"


    "She went to buy us some ingredients for cooking." Brandon said as he frowned. He paused for a second and then asked, "You two made up?"


    "Yeah, thanks to Amelia. We''ll be maintaining a professional rtionship from now on and keep out personal grievances on the side." he said as he stopped scraping the wood and began to pile up all the wood shavings.


    Brandon smiled as he nodded, "That''s great! Now I don''t have to worry about you guys getting into a serious fight during the training camp."


    Keith said nothing at looked at the three trainee inquisitors before ncing at Brandon and Amelia.


    "Okay so here''s the thing guys, firstly, you need some tinder. Something small that can easily catch fire. Wood shavings work, but there are better alternatives that we can find while in a forest.


    Now, once you grab some tinder, you must clump it together and then adjust the distance of the magnifying ss until you see one small point of light converging onto the pile of tinder.


    After that, all you gotta do is to wait for a minute or two and you''ll have your fire ready." he said and waited for a minute.


    Just like he said, the tinder started to smoke and then it quickly caught fire. The fire was small, but it was enough for Keith as he began to pile up small twigs onto it and increased the side of the sticks until he got to the regr sized fire wood.


    "Welp, there you go." he said as he gave the magnifying ss back to Brandon before getting back up onto his feet, "I want to take a bath... do you guys know a ce that I could go to?"


    One of the three inquisitors raised his hands, "I know one. There''s a public hot water bath a few streets from here."


    Keith nodded as he looked at the three of them. There were two guys and one girl. Based on just their looks, he couldn''t really say much but all of them looked fit.


    "That''s great. Why don''t you guys join me and we can get to know each other along the way?"


    "Ew, what a pervert! You''re asking ady to join you in the bath?" Amelia quipped in with a smirk on her face.


    Keith looked at her, "I said along the way, you dirty minded wench!" he said as he smacked her head lightly, to which she retaliated with her own smack.


    Based on his past experiences, he could say that it was a yful smack so he didn''t bother hitting her again and instead, he just shifted his attention back to the three inquisitors who were trying their best not tough.


    "So, what do you guys say?"


    "Sure." the girl said first as she stretched her hand out and Keith shook it, "I''m Keith by the way, Keith Zenister."


    "My name is Laura. I don''t have a surname since I''ve been an orphan from birth. I''m an awakened obviously, and I can transform into a yellow Python."


    Keith nodded and looked at the other two.


    "I''m Caleb and I grew up in the same orphanage as Laura. I can control the winds."


    "I''m the same as these two ande from the same orphanage. You can call me Nathan and uh... my awakened ability is the summoning of a Holy Knight''s armor. When I''m within this armor, my strength, speed, stamina and defense are all enhanced by a lot."

 Chapter 68: Training Programs Rules

    Keith spent some time with them in the public bath, but once they came back to the church, all six of them got to work along with ra who was waiting for them. By the time the training program started, they were finally done with all the stitching.


    The sound of bell reached their ears, and Keith who was busy learning how to stitch from ra, looked towards the direction of the source of the sound.


    There was one old man who was standing on a makeshift wooden tform at the centre of the training grounds.


    "Everyone gather here, please! Everyone gather here, please!" the old man said, his voice amplified, which anyone nearby could tell that it was thanks to an awakened ability.


    People followed his orders and gathered in front of the wooden tform.


    "Hmm, looks like everyone is here." he said as he looked at the people below before continuing, "Alright, it looks like the news has spread and you guys found out about certain aspects of the training camp. We won''t hold it against you, for those who don''t know, I''ll exin everything now."


    "Firstly, you will all be put into teams that range from five to ten members. Next, like most of you have been informed, you will be sent to a random forest. It is actually arge ind that has been recently discovered and it''s as huge as the Baroma Kingdom. It has it''s own two hills, a river and finally a thick forest.


    You will be taken there by one of the arch bishops belonging to the War God Balmond''s Church and once you''re there, you will be given a time limit of three days to do whatever you want, but from the fourth day onwards, there will be one instructor who wille to your team.


    You must do every single thing that they say and based on your performance in their tests, you will be given a grade by every single one of them. At the end of the training program, every one of your team''s scores will be added up and ranked from the highest to the lowest scores.


    There will be no penalties, but the top three teams will get prize money and the first team will receive an additional cursed artifact." he said and paused as he swallowed some of his saliva.


    "Now, let''s go through the rules. Teams are allowed to fight over various things, but you are not allowed to kill or seriously injure someone. If that happens, you will be punished ording to the damage caused. Which means, if you kill someone, you will be executed.


    Next, the things you''re not allowed to bring with you. There are only two things and those are money, and food. You''re allowed to bring water, but that''s the only thing that''s allowed." he said, but a nun who was standing behind him leaned forward and whispered something in his ear.


    "Oh yes, you''re also not allowed to bring revolvers, hunting rifles or anything that uses gun powder."


    "Now Keith is useless in our team, tch tch." Amelia whispered in Keith''s ears, only to get elbowed by him.


    She let out a soft grunt as she covered her mouth with her hand, "Ooof, you didn''t have to do that."


    "You should''ve just shut your mouth then." he retorted as he kept his eyes on the old man who was on stage.


    "Now then, this is probably something that you guys already know, but there will be two people who will be tagging along with you to keep tabs on your progress. One will be from the same church as you and the other one will be from any of the other four churches so that things stay fair.


    They will not help you with anything, so do not expect them to do that. If you guys do have any of the things that have been banned, feel free to hand them over to the two people who''ll be in charge of your team. Now, that is all for the announcement. Grab all your things and assemble here in three hours."


    More than half of the people rushed back to their tents, but Keith''s group was among the ones that didn''t feel too pressed about the timings as they had most of the things packed and ready already.


    But they still felt slightly depressed thanks to the ban on foods. And in Keith''s case, he did feel a little under prepared now that he wasn''t allowed to bring his revolver with him.


    He looked at Laura, Caleb and Nathan who seemed down and sighed, "Guys, don''t worry too much about it. We prepared as much as we could and you guys contributed by buying food for us. It''s just an unlucky coincidence, but don''t worry too much. We have Laura who can turn into a damn python for God''s sake! She''ll be able to easily hunt animals for us.


    Nathan is the best fighter among us, so he''ll be the most important person when ites to defending or attacking other teams and as for Caleb, he''ll uh be very useful in keeping the fire hot.


    Based on where we''ll be sent, there could be various ways he could put his ability to use. From what I can see, it''s only me who''s the dead weight in this team since I won''t have ess to my revolver.


    Amelia is good with the guns, but she''s just as good with hand to handbat. ra on the other hand is even better than Amelia, but that''s what Amelia and Brandon told me. As for Brandon... he''s our stone pir. The front line fighter along with Nathan."


    ra crossed her arms across her chest, "Don''t put yourself down, please. You were the one who prepared most of the things until now and you also taught us a lot of stuff when ites to camping out in the wild. You''re our team''s brains, the one who knows his stuff and has a stable mentality.


    Even if we don''t consider that, your danger sense will be able to save us from a lot of potential dangers. Don''t you guys think so too?" she asked as she turned to look at the others who immediately nodded.

 Chapter 69: Seraphelle

    "Well, thank you for your vote of confidence, I guess." he said, but he still stood my his own words and believed that if he didn''t use all of his powers, then he really was the most useless in his group without the revolver.


    "Anyways." he added, "What should we do with the money though? Should we give them to whoever is in charge of our team?"


    Amelia nodded, "Yeah, just wait for Edward I guess. I''m not going to trust anyone else with my belongings."


    Keith looked around and saw Edward walking towards his group with anotherdy right beside him. Unlike the regr female poption in this world, she was muscr and could bepared to Brandon who was the most muscr in the group.


    "Damn..." Keith blurted out, clearly impressed but then the possibility of it being the side effect of an awakened ability came to his mind, which dampened the impact.


    Once Edward got close enough, he introduced the woman to the group.


    "Well, four of you guys already know me but for the other three, I''m a part of Goddess of Protection, Goddess Seraphina''s Church and I''m from the Protection Detective Department." he said and then pointed at the woman beside him.


    "This esteemeddy is a Countess from Kazak Empire and is a Royal Knight while also holding the title of the Head Musician in the Church. She is a part of the Church of the Goddess of Art, Goddess Seraphelle and she is also named after the goddess."


    "Head Musician..." Keith muttered, but Seraphelle managed to hear him.


    She turned her gaze to him and asked with a stern look on her face, "Is there a problem, young man?"


    "No, mydy. I was just wondering if I could learn something about music even though I''m a part of the Church of Protection, that''s all. You see, I''m just very interested in learning the piano." He said, covering for himself immediately.


    She silently stared at him for a while before nodding as a smile bloomed on her face, "You''re free to visit our church any time you wish. It''s not like anyone will stop you from learning music."


    "It is as you said, mydy." Keith responded, "But I barely have any free time to spare as I''ve been focusing on trying to gain some muscle. When I first joined, I was basically just bones."


    Seraphelle nodded slowly before looking at the others, "If you guys have anything that has been banned, please hand them over to us. I guarantee you that you''ll get everything back perfectly."


    "Everything other than food. We''ll be eating all of that while we''re with you." Edward added and she nodded before shifting her gaze back to Keith, "Keep persisting and one day you''ll reach your goal."


    "I will do my best." he said as he watched Amelia give her leather pouch to Edward while the others followed her, but Keith untied his leather pouch from his waist and handed it over to Seraphelle instead.


    The reason for this was simple. He simply did not want to see her offended over minor things like the team''s trust in her. Even if one person ces their trust in her, then the difference could potentially be drastic.


    ''I''m sure Edward wouldn''t hold it against me.'' he thought as he looked at him, but Edward gave him a wink and went back to tying all the leather pouches to his waist.


    Seraphelle did the same, but with just Keith''s leather pouch. Once she was done, she looked at everyone and said, "Since this is done, Edward and I will go take all the food that''s near your tent. Does any of you have revolvers or any kind of firearms?"


    Keith raised his hand and right behind him, two people followed up. One was Amelia as Keith had already expected, but the other one was Caleb the wind guy.


    "Alright, you''ll be good to go as long as you hand over your weapons." Edward quipped in as he happily patted ra''s leather pouch, the one that had the most money in it with a wide grin on his face.


    Even though he never had any ns to take the money for himself, the feeling of carrying so much money at the same time was exhrating to him.


    Just like Keith, Amelia and Caleb had their weapons on them, so they immediately handed them over to Edward but Keith did the same thing he did a few seconds before and gave his weapon to Seraphelle.


    ''Why don''t these guys understand how much her support could help us?'' he thought in his head as he looked at the others and sighed inwardly before following them back to the tent.


    The work they had to do at the moment was to just dismantle the tent and fold the cloth to make it easy to carry. As for the other things, they were packed and ready to go as that was what they did thest night; packing.


    Dismantling the tent and folding the cloth barely took them a few minutes but once they were done, ra informed everyone of something important.


    "I''ve heard of someone from the War Church having he ability to teleport things and people. If that does happen, I feel like it''ll be better for every single one of us to have some kind of weapon in our hands."


    Hearing her words, Keith nodded as he too had read about a woman from the war church having this ability, so the possibility of this happening wasn''t too low.


    "Sure, but feel free to pick a weapon without me. I can summon a sword along with my armor." Nathan said and grinned widely, while Caleb and Laura also refused to take any weapon.


    When Keith insisted, they took out a pair of daggers from their inner pockets and showed them off.


    "Ah.. alright." Keith said as he looked at the stuff they had bought a few days ago.


    "Can I take a machete then?" he asked as he looked at ra who had taken the responsibility of distributing the weapons.


    She readily nodded and handed over one of the two machetes to him before giving him an extra dagger along with it, "We have a lot of daggers, so just keep it."

 Chapter 70: Timmy Sanders

    On the other side of the training grounds, six men hurriedly packed the things that their group had bought while one guy and three girls stood on the side as they watched them.


    The guy who was surrounded by gorgeous girls, had long and curly light brown hair that fell to his shoulders. His face didn''t have any striking features, making him look like a normal average guy, but with hisvish clothes made of silk, he stood out among the rest.


    "Timmy, shouldn''t you tell you father about this at least once?" one of the beautiful girls hugged him from behind and asked, but he shook his head.


    "It''s fine. He''s at the Morose Kingdom right now to take care of some business and coincidentally, someone robbed one of our jewellery stores. So he''ll probably be staying there to investigate, so there''s no need to bother him with things that don''t need his immediate attention.


    Well, it''s not like he doesn''t know about it. All three of you are his concubines but you mostly spend time with me and all of us know the reason why. He''s just an useless old fart who''s only reached this level thanks to me." he said confidently as he groped the two other girls who were beside him.


    "Well, anyways. I saw a familiar face today, so I''m hoping that I''ll meet her." he said as he smirked and licked his lips, not intending to hide his intentions.


    The girl on the right leaned closer, "Is it ra? Even I saw her a few minutes ago but is she even worth the trouble?" She has that ugly big chest and big ass, like why would you want to even touch something as filthy as her when you have us here?" she said as she grabbed his hand and ran it up from her stomach to her neck.


    "You three should just shut up and stop asking me questions. She may be ugly, but her usefulness is way higher than unawakened pigs like you." he snarled and spit on her face before pushing her away, only to see her crawling back to him like an abandoned animal.


    ''Once I get my hands on her, I''ll make a trade with one of my old ssmates who''s currently a part of War God''s Church to get the method of creating Cursed Artifacts on my own. From the rumours that I''ve heard, it involved a set of rules and this is exactly what I need.


    This way, I''ll turn her into a cursed artifact and feed her ugly body to the dogs. Did this bitch really think that I was attracted to something as ugly as her? Yuck.'' he thought as he stared at the girl who was hugging his thigh and pped her hard.


    "You, I''ll punish you in the forest tonight." he smirked evilly before turning to look at the two instructors that were sent to keep an eye on his team.


    He got the girls to let go of him and walked towards the instructors with a friendly smile. One of them was from the same church as him, the Money God Mammon''s Church, but he had barely met him until now.


    "Excuse me gentlemen, if you don''t mind, I have an idea that I''d like to propose to you." he said as he got close to them and saw that both of them smiled.


    The guy from the money church smiled, "We''ve heard about you. Tell me what your idea is, but just so you know, we will not be helping you with matters rted to other teams."


    "Oh it doesn''t have any rtion to other teams. I simple need your help with our own team. I need the expertise of this gentle man here to heal my women when ever they''re injured and in return, you can have your fun with them." he proposed his idea and the two of them looked sightly disappointed.


    Timmy cursed inwardly before adding more to the equation, "Both of you are from Morose Kingdom, yes?" he asked and when they nodded he grinned.


    "Well, then I''ll give you one Moro each time you heal my girls. One moro each, one moro for you guys to keep everything that happens a secret and every time my girls get injured, I''ll give you an extra moro to heal them and I''ll also let you have your fun with them. Are you two satisfied with this?"


    The two instructors looked at each other''s faces and turned to look at the three women who were looking back at them before nodding, "Sure, now go back to your team and stop talking to us. We''ll take the money directly from the stash that you''ve given us."


    "Feel free, feel free." Timmy said as he grinned and walked back to his father''s concubines.


    Two hours passed and the sound of the bell reached everyone''s ears, which prompted them to rush back to stand in front of the wooden tform.


    Timmy''s team wasn''t an exception either and he got his men to carry everything for him. Each one of them had onerge bag strapped to their backs and had each of their arms grabbing onto one cloth bag each, which was basically just a bunch of things ced at the centre of a cloth with the corners of the cloth tied together.


    The bags consisted of various tools, weapons and traps but Timmy wasn''t the only one who had prepared a lot as he saw another guy walk beside him with exactly ten people but every single one of them were carrying things unlike Timmy''s team where only six were working.


    ''Hmm... Duke Arthur''s son, Adrian huh? Heh, thanks to his sister getting kicked out of the family, he''s now the heir. What a sore loser.'' Timmy thought, consoling himself by putting others down mentally, but his expression changed when he saw Adrian turn his head to look past him.


    Timmy followed his gaze and turned around to see Adrian''s sister and ra talking to each other amicably.

 Chapter 71: Amelia, The Fortune Teller

    Amelia who was talking to ra, paused when she noticed a familiar face, and smiled, "Adrian!"


    "Hey, I hope you''re doing fine." he replied as he gave her a gentle smile, but he didn''t fail to notice Keith''s expressionless gaze that was fixated on him.


    "You should introduce your friends, don''t you think so?" he asked as he looked at the people in her group, but Amelia shook her head, "Don''t bother with the etiquette bull shit here. Both you and I know that you''ll not see my friends like... almost never unless you get lucky, so there''s no need to bother."


    Saying that she pointed at Adrian, "This is my brother guys, and he was born two years before me. We share the same mother but we do have step siblings."


    Keith leaned towards her and whispered, "Is he the one who Adam mentioned?"


    "Nah that''s my step brother."


    "Oh." Keith said as he looked at Adrian, but this time he had a smile on his face, "Hi, my name is Keith and let me just tell you one thing. Your sister is a pain to deal with."


    The moment he finished saying that, he immediately crouched down as a palm flew past his head and Adrian began tough when he saw this.


    "Hahahaha, that she is. But don''t worry, she still has a delicate heart and when times are serious, she can be a huge help. She''s my favourite sibling for a reason." he said as he walked past Timmy''s group and tried to pat Amelia''s head, but she dodged him expertly.


    The two of them then began to bicker, but Keith''e eye was on ra and he didn''t fail to notice her staring at the ground like a statue. But as a person who had seen Timmy thanks to the novels character art that the author usually posted, he easily understood the reason.


    He absolutely hated Timmy, but that was only due to him learning about him through a reader''s perspective. He wasn''t really too sure about how to face him now that he was physically present inside the novel, but when he saw the red p mark on one of the girls'' faces, he felt a sense of relief.


    ''He''ll get what he deserves in due time, but I have to keep my enemies close to me.'' he thought as he turned to look at Timmy who was staring at ra with a smirk on his face.


    "Excuse me, sir. I don''t really know who you are, but I hope you can take my words seriously. My awakened ability lets me sense danger and thanks to that, I can tell that you''ll face serious threats in the near future. I hope you take care of yourself." he said, sounding sincere and worried.


    Timmy stared at Keith for a few seconds before frowning, "Hmm. I''ll keep that in mind, thank you. If you need anything in the future, don''t hesitate toe to the Sanders'' estate in Kazak Empire''s north."


    Keith nodded and went back to ignoring him, ''Now, all I need to do is get Vincent to target all of their businesses. This way, even if he doesn''t trust me now, he will remember my words in the future and I''ll make him live in fear.


    Unfortunately for Timmy, the indirect threats didn''t stop there as Amelia too, began to talk to him.


    "Hmm, do you mind if I ce my hand on your forehead? I have the ability to see into the future, you see? I just want to confirm if what my teammate said is right or wrong."


    "Amelia..." Timmy muttered before frowning once again, "I know about your awakened ability and as far as I know, it doesn''t involve future sight."


    "Oh, you dumb idiot." Amelia clicked her tongue as she ced her palms on her chest, "You do remember how I looked before I awakened right? I had a bigger chest and a bigger ass too. But once I awakened, their size reduces and now I''m a beauty that every single man in the empire thirsts for.


    Unfortunately for me, this included the prince and that bastard was an ugly dog just like you. But as ugly as you may be, I wouldn''t want to see someone valuable to the empire die, if you know what I mean.


    Oh yeah, about my power. I am the princess of the night and I do have the ability to see into the future, but I realised this a bit toote."


    Timmy nodded as this wasn''t too umon. People wouldn''t just learn about their awakened powers directly. It was mostly through coincidence and if they were lucky enough, guidance and multiple trials.


    Keith too knew about it as he had read the novel, but he also could tell that Amelia waspletely bullshitting at the moment. People normally did not have the luxury to get information about their abilities stuffed into their brains.


    This was the same with Norn as the guy didn''t even know about his own awakened ability. It was the same with ra as she still was unable to figure out the true extent of her capabilities. When she first awakened, she was only able to create normal cotton gloves, but as time passed, the length of the gloves increased.


    Once they reached a certain point, the cotton gloves changed to silk gloves and then the size was also reset back to a normal glove size, which stopped at her wrist.


    Vincent was a simr case, but he had Keith to guide him to an extent.


    Timmy was angry with Amelia, but he knew the importance of his own life so he ignored all the bad stuff she said about him.


    "Okay, please tell me what you see." he said and Amelia nodded before pressing her thumb on Timmy''s forehead. She increased the force until it made him feel pain, but that was her limit.


    She kept this on for one hour as she made up a story in her mind and then blurted everything out, "Hmm, it''ll start small but as time passes, the bad things will umte and then, it''ll lead to your death."

 Chapter 72: Training Program Officially Begins

    Her so-called prediction was extremely generic and barely had any details, but it was enough for her as Timmy''s expression slightly changed. Whether it was fear or anxiety, she couldn''t tell, but she knew that it wasn''t anything positive.


    "I see..." he said with a deep frown on his face as he nodded, "Thank you, I''ll keep this in mind."


    "Time''s up everyone." the old man''s voice shot out, entering everyone''s ears before he continued, "Grab onto all of you things and make sure that you have a physical contact with your team mates. If two or more teams are caught trying to form an alliance, then they''ll be disqualified. You only have three seconds. Three."


    Keith and the others made sure that they had everything at hand before they made sure to physically touch each other in one way or the other. It was Keith who made sure to keep his hands on Amelia and ra''s shoulders.


    Brandon and Nathan had their hands upied so the others grabbed onto them instead. Once the chain was formed, they heard the old man reach the count one.


    "One, and... Zero!"


    Instantly, Keith felt his stomach churn, but he made sure to keep himself from vomiting as he needed all the food inside his body to stay inside if he wished to walk around the forest without being carried by someone else.


    It took him a lot of effort, but once he got a hold of himself, he looked at he others and took in some information from his surroundings, which wasn''t much.


    Caleb was still holding onto his mouth, but the others had already recovered. They were in a forest that had trees and nts everywhere, but it wasn''t overly dense. There was enough space for three people to walk side by side if they didn''t carry anything.


    "Hmm." Seraphelle hummed as she looked around and said, "Came her once already, so as long as you guys promise to do your best in the tests, I''ll guide you to a good ce where you can set up our camp."


    Edward himself was slightly taken aback by her words, and Seraphelle, who saw this, decided to exin.


    "Well, of course. This won''t happen if Edward rejects my idea, but I want you guys to know that the other instructors aren''t honest or too rule abiding. I''m helping you out because I don''t want to wander aimlessly in this forest.


    You guys have indeed prepared well, but there are others who did it better. They bought a lot more things and have more people in their teams too. Personally, I just want to set up a camp and settle down instead of struggle with you lot."


    "Oh, I have no problem with your suggestion, mydy." Edward said as he bowed slightly, showing respect to her noble title.


    Seraphelle nodded and looked at the team, "What do you guys say?"


    Keith looked at Brandon, waiting for his answer, but everyone else looked at Keith and this included Brandon as all of them could tell that Seraphelle was asking him and not the official team leader, who was Brandon.


    "Oh um, I see no problem with it. Thank you for your help, mydy." Keith said as he finally caught on and Seraphelle nodded before pointing towards a particr direction.


    "Just go this way and we''ll reach the river."


    Keith nodded and looked at the others who began to walk in the said direction. It took them a few hours of continuous walking until they finally reached the riverbank.


    "Finally." Brandon said with a grunt as he ced therge roll of cloth on the ground, and everyone else followed his example. He then looked at Keith, "What next? You''re our nner until the training program is done."


    Sighing slightly, Keith nodded, "Okay, every one of you will focus on getting the tent pitched up." he said and turned to look at Edward and Seraphelle, "Should we help you with your tents too?"


    "No we''re fine. Just take care of yourselves and that''s more than enough." Edward said as he tossed the stuff he was carrying and began to set up his own tent along with his instructor partner.


    Keith didn''t bother with them anymore and turned to look at his team, all of whom had already busied themselves with the tent.


    ''I guess I''ll build the water filter in the meanwhile.'' he thought as he looked up at the sky and saw the sun slowly going down.


    He grabbed an axe from the stash and looked around for dead trees. There weren''t too many, but here were quite a few of them.


    ''Well, these can be used for firewood but I guess I''ll take some branches from live trees for my water filter'' he mused as he stopped in front of a tall tree. He didn''t know which tree it was, but he didn''t really care as the tree had no fruits hanging.


    He then began working on cutting it, but thanks to hisck of strength, it took him a long time. Even then, he persevered and managed to get it down. Then, he cut off some rtively thin but strong branches and took them back to camp.


    "Oh, you guys are done." he said as he looked at the threerge tents that had been set up. One was for Edward and Seraphelle while the other two was for his own team.


    He looked around as he gathered his thoughts and then locked his gaze on Laura, "Well... we could technically find some food or catch some fish, but we''ll expose our location to the others if we start a fire at night."


    "Don''t worry about all of that, child." Seraphelle said, sitting in front of the tent with crossed legs, "This ind is extremely huge and the number of people taking part in the training program aren''t too many. So don''t worry about exposing your location and just do as you wish. Even if they do spot us, they won''t have too much of an incentive to attack. Not when they could just camp somewhere else."

 Chapter 73: The Great Flaming Fist

    Keith''s n to build the water filter was simple. Thrust a few long sticks into the ground and tie up the goat skin leather to the top of the sticks to make a saggy leather bowl. Inside that, he nned on tossing in someyers of cloth, charcoal powder, soil and some small stones.


    It''d work as a physical filter, but they''d still have to boil the water to make it safe to drink.


    As he got to work, he kept an eye on Vincent''s actions as he had to fight a tough opponent this time. He didn''t n on helping him win the fight, but if things went wrong, he did hope to at least preserve his life.


    The reason for his nervousness was the all group fight and based on the information he received until now, there would be a total of twelve opponents that Vincent would have to face.


    ''There are five awakened in that group and every single one of them have strong abilities. If his luck is bad, then he''s done for. I just hope that they don''t gang up on him.'' he thought as he kept an eye on the system screen.


    Vincent took a deep breath and entered the ring, only to see every single one of the twelve prisoners shift their attention towards him.


    "Hehe, looks like we got a new chick here boys." one of the more buffed guys said while the othersughed in response.


    "Yeah, he can just surrender and safe his own life while we must fight to death." another one spat out as he red at Vincent.


    Keith who was watching everything from the side, understood what was going to happen if he let things be as they were and decided to immediately interfere. He began to create a new quest for Vincent and since it was a simple quest, it didn''t take too long to make.


    [Quest: Surrender Immediately]


    Reward: None


    Punishment for Failure: Death


    "Oh my god,e onnn! I can beat these assholes even if they gang up on me!" Vincent screamed at the sky, making Keith sigh.


    He shook his head and withdrew the quest before deciding to take a risk.


    ''It''s almost night time, so we''ll all head to bed soon. Everyone else should also be busy with their own preparations, so I guess I can take a risk by helping Vincent out. He''s been obedienttely too.'' he thought as he created a "gift pack" and kept it ready just in case Vincent might need it.


    Vincent on the other hand, had sessfully drawn the aggro of all 12 diators instantly by saying that he could beat them even if they ganged up on him.


    "Damn this kid, I''LL VIOLATE YOU!!!" the buff guy roared as his muscled began to twitch. Dark brown fur grew over his body along with a long tail.


    "Nah, I''d rather do it with a beautiful girl instead of a monkey." Vincent replied as he put his pinky in his ears, trying to dig out some wax from inside.


    "Grrraaahhh!" the buffed guy, who was now a two meter tall gori, roared before jumping up into the sky. Vincent simply nced as him, but his eyes were on the other 11 people who were staring at him.


    He immediately picked a target and without waiting for the gori tond, he dashed forward with his balled fist, ready to strike. His speed wasn''t too high, but not a single person in the ring had expected to see that happened next.


    As he neared one of the diators who had multiple scars on his face, he punched outwards, only to have his fist grabbed by the guy. Contrary to everyone''s expectations, Vincent grinned.


    "Thanks, that''s the reason why I punched so slow." he said and the next instant, the guy was up in mes. One second felt like an entire minute to him as he didn''t really feel any heat, but once his pain receptors sent the signal to his brain, he began to scream.


    Every other diator including the gori, stood silently as they watched the guy burn for more than a minute before falling to the ground. He still continued to struggle, but it didn''tst long.


    His body continued to burn, but when Vincent snapped his fingers, the fire was immediately suppressed.


    "All I need to do, is touch you once and you face the same fate as this guy here." he said as he turned to look at every one of them. His gaze paused when he reached the gori, but the guy who had shown the most amount of guts and rage, looked away and attacked the person closest to him.


    "Oraaaaaa" he screamed as he grabbed another diator and immediately pulled his arms out from his body before stomping his head, eliciting a loud crunch and a stter.


    Everyone but two of them actively ignored Vincent, but when he saw these two slowly walk towards him with umunicated coordination, he was pretty surprised.


    "I''m guessing that you guys have something that could counter me." he said confidently, but inwardly, he was pretty nervous.


    One of them grinned and thickyer of rocks formed over his body. It took him approximately three seconds, but in that time, he grew up to be three meters tall and looked like a massive stone golem.


    The other guy didn''t do anything and just stood still with a smirk on his face, "Come hit me, you idiot. Do you really think that I''m afraid of your mes? I''ve won forty eight diator fights. Do you really think that I''ll lose to someone like you?"


    Vincent didn''t really know the answer himself. Not when he had no information on his opponent. He knew that he couldn''t fight the golem and he was too hesitant to fight the other guy too.


    His meagre, but intense fighting experience had taught him not to fall for taunts and he trusted his experience a lot.


    "Oh well, I can''t kill you guys. But that doesn''t mean that I won''t try." he muttered under his breath as he raised his arms outwards, to his sides and opened his mouth to scream.


    "I am! The Great ming Fist!"

 Chapter 74: Connoisseur of True Equality

    "I am! The Great ming Fist!" Vincent screamed as sparks began to appear all around him before they extended outwards by evolving into a me. The mes rushed outwards with Vincent as the center, but soon, they began to rotate.


    A me tornado was formed and as seconds passed by, it only grew and grew until it covered the entire diator ring.


    The screams of the diators drowned Vincent''s own roars and the spectators that were sitting at the front seats were forced to run as far as they could as just the heat alone made them feel like they were getting cooked alive.


    Keith who was silently watching, frowned when he saw Vincent''s skin peeling off while he was inside the mes. This wasn''t supposed to happen as Vincent hadplete immunity towards his own mes.


    ''An ability to redirect damage? There should be a limit to this right?'' he asked himself as his gaze locked onto the guy who hadn''t shown his awakened ability yet. He didn''t have any interest in the rock golem guy as he knew that he''d be effected by the mes in one way or the other.


    ''It doesn''t matter if the mes can''t directly hurt this guy. The heat alone will be able to cook him from the inside, but I have no choice but to help this reckless idiot now.'' he cursed Vincent before using everything in his power to boost his physical regenerative powers.


    Almost a minuteter, the size of the fire tornado began to reduce, but the spectators weren''t surprised to see Vincent crouching on the ground with burn marks all over his body but they were surprised when they saw the damage reflection guy lying on the ground, burnt to a crisp.


    ''Good thing that he didn''t have the capability to perfectly reflect all damage. It looked more like he took around thirty percent of the damage and returned back seventy percent. Though, it would have been great if I managed to get my hands on this ability but it is what it is.'' Keith thought as he felt slightly tired.


    Vincent on the other hand, weakly stood up, stumbling a few times as he tried to stay on the ground before looking up at the golem guy who was still standing. The stone golem slowly lifted up it''s leg, but Vincent raised his arm, "I give up."


    He knew his limits and since he had taken too much damage, he decided to forfeit as his life was more important then a mere win. He was brave and slightly reckless, but he knew when to stop. Or at least this was what he personally believed.


    Keith on the other hand, was absolutely annoyed since he had to use quite a bit of his energy to heal Vincent.


    ''Well, I healed him up so I guess that could be considered as a gift. The free awakened ability upgrade can be saved forter.'' he thought, but even though he didn''t n on giving Vincent anything, he still decided to automatically count this as a "draw" for the daily quest and disabled the punishment for failure just for this one day.


    As he saw Vincent safely walk out of the arena, he let out a sigh of relief and got back to work.


    It took him a while to set everything up, but once he did, he couldn''t stop himself from smacking his own forehead.


    "How in the hell is the water going to get filtered when there''s no way for it to pass through the leather? Oh god I''m so dumb." he muttered, feeling slightly depressed.


    Nheless, he quickly came up with a solution and untied all the threads that kept the leather ends secured to the sticks and walked up to the others to see if anyone was free.


    Everyone had taken on some or the other responsibility and were busy doing the work they picked. Brandon and Nathan took on the responsibility of gathering firewood and they were doing a great job.


    In just a few minutes, they had already managed to cut more than ten dead trees and chop them up into manageable pieces. Caleb and Laura had gone off to find something to hunt while Amelia and ra were busy gathering wild berries, mushrooms and fruits without any knowledge on whether they were poisonous or not.


    Keith took out his dagger and poked a few holes in the center of the leather before walking up to ra.


    "Hey, could you stitch a thin cloth on both sides of this leather for me? They must be in the center and cover all the holes that I''ve made." he said as he got close to them and ra nodded, "Sure, but we''ll need your help with Lady Seraphelle. I''m sure that she knows about the nts in this ce, but I''m not sure if she''ll help out if any of us ask her other than you."


    "Sure. But you guys should have shown some trust in her at the start. Always expect to be treated the same way that you treat others." he said and looked at Amelia, "This applies to you mostly."


    "What did I do wrong now? I''ll kick your balls, you bastard."


    Keith shrugged, "That exact reason, is why I said that. Just keep in mind that I can kick too and I''ll do it with all my strength. The pain won''t be as high, but I can close the gap by kicking you multiple times. Will you be fine with that?"


    "You... you''re like a wild animal! Who in their right mind would kick a beautifuldy''s private parts?"


    Keith stared at her for a few seconds and shifted his gaze back to ra, "Please don''t let this witch corrupt you, and here." he said as he gave her the leather, "Thanks a lot. I''ll go dig up a fire pit for us."


    "Don''t worry about her, she''ll change. She just has the tendency to show all the bad traits that she acquired as a noble and the stuff she learned after getting disowned, to the people close to her. Especially men, so I must pray for the man who''ll fall into the pits of hell." ra said, her voice as calm as always but it hit Amelia at the ces where she didn''t expect.

 Chapter 75: Animals, Evolutions and Monsters

    Time quickly passed as everyone did their respective jobs. By the time the sun had settled down, Keith had managed to dig up simple, but umon firepit. There were two holes on the ground.


    One small and onerge, which both connected to each other under the ground. Keith tossed in some tinder and lit it on fire before he slowly fed more wood to the mes. Once he saw that the fire was stable, he looked at Caleb.


    "Come here and shoot out air from this small hole. The air will help fuel the fire better and will reduce the production of smoke." he said. Scientifically, that wasn''t the case, but he didn''t bother with giving out the proper exnation as he knew that they wouldn''t understand.


    He watched Caleb do as he said and saw the volume of mes increase. Along with that, he also did not see any more smoke.


    ''All that matters is the results. There''s no need for aplicated exnation.'' he thought as he shifted his gaze to Laura who was busy cutting up a fish that she had managed to catch. Just one fish was enough as it was extremely huge, having a length of three meters.


    Keith''s expression turned serious as he saw this, but there was nothing he could do but curse his luck. The reason was very simple; it was because he knew that this was no ordinary fish.


    ''Awakened animals. They''ll appear in the novel after the war arc but damn... I really did not expect this.'' he thought and sighed lightly, ''Luckily, the ones that are in this ind seem to only be the non aggressive ones. At least, that''s what Seraphelle said and the events in the novel also slightly point towards the same thing. But I''m still a little anxious.''


    He had originally nned to umte strength and awakened abilities during the war, so he could prepare for the inevitable catastrophe, but he did not expect that he''d get thrown into an ind that had awakened animals in it.


    The first thing he wanted to do at the moment, was to learn more about the animals that resided on the ind, but he did not have the means to do that efficiently.


    ''Let''s take one step at a time and stop worrying about the things that I have no control over.'' he said to himself inwardly as he walked towards Laura to help her out with scaling the fish. It took him a while, but he had to resort to using a cleanly washed stone to scale the fish as he did not want to dull the de of the machete.


    Thanks to his culinary experience in his past life, Keith took up the responsibility to cut up the fish. He couldn''t just directly fillet it, so he had to resort to cutting it into chunks before pulling out the bones.


    It took him a while, but once he was done, there was a tall pile of delicate fish meat ced on a bunch of cleanly washed leaves.


    "Let''s eat everyone. We have managed to bring some salt and spices with us, thanks to them being an exception to the food ban, so feel free to do what you want with this fish. But please don''t waste it." he said as he grabbed a big chunk of white meat and directly tossed in onto the pan that was on the fire.


    Everyone took their turns to cook their own food, and Keith took this leisure time to extract a bit more information from Seraphelle.


    "Mydy, are you sure that there aren''t any dangerous animals in this ind? I have a feeling that there should be a handful of them at the very least."


    Seraphelle heard him and nodded, "Yeah there are a few, but they''re just slightly evolved versions of their normal forms." she said before she began to get into the details. Keith already knew about the evolution phenomenon, but he still silently listened.


    "For you to understand what''s going on in this ind, you''ll have to learn about something crucial. We humans can awaken, but the animals also can do the same. The five great divine beings created a magical barrier to protect our continent from creatures like there. That''s the stuff that''s written in the ancient records, but I don''t really understand how the animals in this ind can even pose a threat to us.


    Anyways, let''s get to the main point. The barrier also stops animals from awakening on our continent. We''ve been sending out people to explore the seas for the past five hundred years, and only a decade ago did we manage to find this ind.


    It took us a while to learn more about it, but it''s pretty safe considering the kind of awakened people we have on our side." she said, but yed his part as a curious person and asked her a question.


    "How do animals awaken though?"


    "They awaken just like us... but for some reason, if two awakened animals breed, they give birth to another awakened. Due to this, they evolve rapidly. The carnivores in this ind aren''t too strong, so don''t worry too much about it." she said and Keith nodded.


    He knew even more. He knew stuff that Seraphelle wouldn''t even imagine about, but he kept it to himself.


    ''The reason they created the barrier, was for their own gain. They gain divinity from the actions of humans, so they had to do their best to protect us from dangers because without us, they''ll lose their divinity and ultimately, their lives.


    It looks like the animals here haven''t evolved much, but there were creatures that had turned into dangerous monsters that reached hundreds of meters tall, ones that could control the nature and some that could even move the seas.


    Compared to them, we humans pale inparison and in less than a decade, we''ll face the full brunt of their attacks thanks to you guys going out to look for trouble.'' he thought, frowning slightly.

 Chapter 76: Passing Down Awakened Abilities

    Every single creature, including humans could awaken and if the awakened ones bred with each other, then they would produce an offspring that was also awakened. This rule also applied to humans, but thanks to the extreme diversity of their awakened abilities, they were unable to follow the same path as the regr animals.


    That was just one reason, but the other one was thanks to the divine barrier protecting the continent. It stopped humans from producing an awakened offspring even if they fulfilled all the conditions.


    The conditions were simple. The human parents must have awakened abilities that synergise, for example, a mother with the ability to create mes and a father with the ability to control the heat of his surroundings.


    While there was still a y of chances, if they did give birth to an offspring that was awakened, then that meant that the child would either have the ability of the mother, the father or abination of both.


    Which could potentially be the ability to create mes and control the heat of the mes.


    Though, it has to be noted that the possibility for an awakened child to be born is 50%, there was a huge potential that was being wasted in the main continent where humans resided. There were other continents, and inds far away where humans lived, and these guys weren''t restricted by any gods.


    Just like the animals, they they could stack awakened abilities upon each other and thanks to their intelligence, they managed to figure out all the rules and restrictions. They were extremely strong, incredible awakened abilities in current times after centuries worth of awakened abilities being passed down.


    Though, there were limits to this. One of the few was that if two people with the exact same awakened abilities, copted, then their offspring would have a 50% chance of getting the same awakened ability and not a stronger version. The other 50% chance was to be born as a normal person.


    As Keith recalled all of this information, he sighed as he could sense the impending doom. He stared at the fish meat in his hands, knowing full well that it was just a regr fish that managed to increase the hardness of it''s scales and it''s average size.


    There were far worse things in other inds and even in the ocean waters.


    ''Let''s focus on the present.'' he thought as he did his best to suppress his fears and anxiety. He had always been an overthinker, but this trait of his would always show itself in the worst of times. His usual pessimistic attitude would also be amplified, giving birth to anxiety.


    He took a long and deep breath before standing up, "I''ll take a stroll around the camp. I just need some time alone." he said as he looked at the others and left.


    He didn''t go far, but stayed pretty close to the camp, the sound of fire crackling still reached his ears. He gently ced his hand on a nearby tree and looked up at the sky.


    ''''Hey Red Snow, why did you you even bring me here... or maybe I should ask, how did you do it? I hated by previous life, but I don''t like being in a situation where I''m facing impending doom. I''m not your brave main character, you know?'' he said, knowing full well, that she was keeping an eye on him.


    There was no response even after Keith waited for a few seconds, but then his gaze fell on the leaf that had fallen in front of him a few seconds ago. He picked it up and saw a few words cut into it.


    I don''t have answers either. But I believe in you.


    He stared at the leaf for a while before sighing, ''Of course you say that. You''re not the one who''s thrown into danger, are you?'' he thought before tearing the leaf into multiple pieces before tossing it away.


    He didn''t bother waiting for an answer and continued walking. As time passed, he slowly managed to suppress his fears and began to think with pure rationality.


    ''Well, it''s better not to waste this opportunity. There are thousands of fishes of a simr size to the one that Laura caught for us, so we won''t have much of a problem with food. I should make use of this and strengthen my body as soon as possible. Maybe I should go ask Seraphelle what her awakened ability even does.


    She''s as muscr as steroid injecting gym maniacs in my old life, but there''s no way she can maintain that form for an entire day if that is her awakened ability.'' he thought as he turned to look at her.


    She was talking to Edward while sitting on one of the tree stumps. Keith didn''t feel any kind of attraction towards her and this was because he didn''t have a thirst for overly muscr women.


    He did have a thing for girls who were fit, but things changed when they had too much muscle. He respected their work ethic and dedication to their goals, but they were just not his type.


    He gobbled up the rest of the fish that was in his hands and headed back to the camp to stuff himself with more. He had a goal to aplish and he''d do it no matter what happened as long as he didn''t put his team in danger.


    As he got close to the firepit, he saw ra cooking up some meat.


    "Is everyone done with their dinner?" he asked as he crouched down beside her, his eyes fixated on the fish.


    She silently nodded, using a stick to flip the fish meat, "Yes. They said they''re full and as you can see, they just want to sleep after such a long and tiring day."


    Keith looked at the others who did look tired. They had walked for miles and then began to set up a camp, all of with consumed a lot of their energy. Now that their stomachs were full, the only thing they wanted to do was rest their tired bodies.


    "Looks like you''re hungrier that them." he said, smirking.


    ra shook her head immediately, "No, this is for you. I know you eat a lot, and since there was so much meat left, I thought I''ll just cook some while you ate your first chunk of meat."

 Chapter 77: Ill Keep My Hands To Myself

    "Thanks." Keith said as kept his eyes fixated on the pan, "By the way, I want you to use your divine protection on Laura, Amelia, Caleb, me and you. Brandon and Nathan have their own ways to protect themselves, so they''ll be fine."


    "Mhm." she hummed and nodded in response before taking the fish off the pan. She ced it on the wooden te that Keith was using, "Do you want more?"


    He nodded and grabbed four chunks of meat from the stash before cing them on a cleanrge leaf that was ced on the ground, beside the fire.


    "Yeah, I''m hungry. We don''t really have a problem with food as long as Laura is here, so there''s no reason to hold back." he said and sat down beside her, "It''s a pity that the guys and girls have to sleep separately though."


    Hearing hisment, she turned to look at him, "You... want to sleep together?"


    "I mean, why not? You don''t want to?" he asked back as he dug into this food.


    ra didn''t answer and directly switched topics, "What''s the n for tomorrow? Nathan said he''ll stay at the camp for safety purposes while Laura and Brandon n to take care of the hunting. Caleb is slightly depressed that he''s not being of any use while Amelia and I are also slightly lost at what to do."


    "We need to build a smoker and a storage unit." Keith said after swallowing the food in his mouth, "We don''t have problem procuring food, but we can''t just waste it. Everyone ate until their tummies went full, but we still have so much meat left over."


    Hearing his words, she looked at the pile of fish meat that was still pretty tall and nodded, "You''re right."


    "Mhm." he replied, his mouth filled with fish. He took his time to swallow it before pointing at the water filter, "I also have to toss in some filter materials into that thing. But once that is done, I don''t really know what we''re supposed to do. They did say that we''ll have free time of three days before some random instructores here on the fourth day."


    "I asked Edward about it and he told me that the instructors will just focus on training us physically and will teach us a few things based on their church''s specializations. He also told me that the training will be physically intense."


    Keith heard her and immediately blurted out, "If that''s the case, then we need to stock up on berries or various fruits. Something that''s sweet. Meat alone won''t cut it if we''re supposed to strain ourselves physically."


    He knew the importance of micro and macro nutrients, so he knew that fish meat alone won''t provide enough energy to do intense physical tasks. He''d need carbohydrates for that, so he went straight for sweet things, which technically should contain a lot of calories.


    He wasn''t a great nutritionist or herbology expert, but he knew some surface level information.


    "Then Amelia and I will look for them. Maybe we''ll take Caleb with us too."


    Keith nodded and finished thest bit of fish that was left on his te, "Is it done?" he asked as he looked at the chunk of meat that was on the pan.


    "Wait a bit."


    "Alright..."


    The two of them chatted while he filled up his stomach, but once four extra chunks of meat were taken care of, Keith patted his belly, "I guess that''s enough for tonight."


    ra nodded and looked at the tents, "If you want, you can share a tent with me. Brandon went ahead and asked Edward if he could use the smaller tent for.. um recreational purposes and Edward agreed.


    I''m sharing my tent with Amelia and Edward, so only cuddling is allowed. Is that fine?"


    Hearing her words, Keith immediately nodded, "Yes of course. I''m not Brandon you know? I totally don''t think of getting into your pants all the time. Especially not now."


    His words said one thing, but the smirk on his face said something else. ra blushed slightly as she recalled the night she spent together with him before she red at him, "Pervert!"


    "Heh. Let''s go, I was just joking. I''ll keep my hands to myself. After all, I am pretty tried." he said, yawning slightly. It was in fact, true that he was tired. The only thing he wanted to do right now, was to close his eyes and drift into the realm of nothingness.


    ra nodded with a slight smile on her face before taking him to her tent. There were three "beds" made of leaves, but it would basically just feel like sleeping on the ground as it wasn''t exactly soft. There were only threeyers of leaves.


    There were only three leaf beds in the tent, which was clearly meant for the three girls, but now, two of them were upied by Edward and Amelia.


    ra seemed to have overlooked this and turned to give Keith an apologetic look, "It''ll feel cramped."


    "It''s fine. You guys should have used some of the cloth for the bedding though, we bought so much cloth after all, so what''s the point of saving it."


    Hearing his words, she immediately pinned the me on Nathan.


    "I... it was Caleb who took care of the bedding. And even though we noticed... it felt rude to reprimand him when he was already feeling so down." she whispered, sounding guilty.


    Keith sighed and shook his head, "Communication is important. Leaves don''t do a great job at blocking heat so I''m a hundred percent sure that everyone here will have trouble sleeping tonight. It''s already getting cold and it''s not even midnight yet. What do you think will happen when Caleb sees the others suffering? It''ll just make him feel even worse. Even he will suffer thanks to the cold."


    He looked at the other two in the tent and sighed once again as they were fast asleep.


    "Go wake the others. Tell them to change the bedding as soon as possible. If not, they''ll just wake up feeling grumpy and I don''t want to see that."

 Chapter 78: Whats Your Awakened Ability?

    The next morning, Keith slowly opened his eyes and immediately jumped up. His chest felt a stinging pain on the inside thanks to the sudden shock he felt. He looked down at ra who looked apologetic and sighed.


    "I''m sorry, I''m just used to sleeping alone and I just... did not expect to open up eyes and see tworge eyeballs staring at me." he said. He knew that he would have been fine if he saw someone sleeping beside him, but a pair of eyes staring at him, just caught him off guard and almost gave him a heart attack.


    "I''ll need some time to get used to this, but what were you trying to do though?" he asked as he sat back down on the thickyer made of wool nkets.


    ra''s face turned slightly red, "You look very cute when you''re asleep... so I don''t know why but I just watched you sleep after waking up."


    "Oh. So it''s like that." he said and chuckled before shaking his head, "Alright got it, let''s go and eat as much as we can. Although we salted all the fishst night, it won''t stay too fresh if we leave it for too long."


    Keith took his sweet time to fill up about 80% of the water filter with various natural filters. From the bottom to the top mostyer, he put in some cloth, ayer of cotton, charcoal powder, crushed and dried weeds, chunks of charcoal, andstly, the top mostyer was just a bunch of stones and pebbles that were washed in the river.


    Once done, he grabbed a medium sized copper pot and used it to bring some water from the river. He slowly poured it all into the filter and put the copper pot under the holes, the area that had a thick cloth stitched onto it.


    He head to wait for a few seconds to get a glimpse of the first drop of water but as time passed, the flow increased to a thin line of water falling straight into the pot. Satisfied with the oue, he wished to move on to the other things, but food came first.


    Luckily, the fish hadn''t spoiled yet so everyone ate it without having any intention of hunting as they didn''t want to waste any food. Unlikest night, every single person in the team stuffed themselves thanks to Keith''s rants about not wanting to waste food while they were in the forest.


    Once they were all done, they decided to rest but Keith couldn''t help but notice Laura limping around even though she tried her best not to. And then there was Brandon who had clear scratch marks on his arms.


    ''Wow, these wild bastards. Just how hardcore did they getst night?'' he mused, and Amelia who was right beside him, noticed it and leaned towards him.


    "When he gets too excited, his awakened ability activates. That should answer your unasked questions." she whispered as she kept her gaze on Laura, feeling pity for the girl.


    Keith, for the first time in his life, felt like he had been hit with something extremely huge. His imagination instantly ran wild, but that was also when he noticed how Laura kept giving Brandon hateful looks.


    "Looks like it didn''t go wellst night."


    "Mhm, I did tell him not to take any risk but that horny bastard thought it''ll get me jealous. Anyways, the team is in your hands now so this matter is yours to deal with. From the moment Seraphelle unofficially made you the team leader, Brandon decided to let loose and act like his normal self. So yeah, good luck." she said and patted his back before heading over to ra.


    Keith stood in ce and sighed, "Oh well, let''s just go make a smoker. Or maybe even just a grill like thing should work."


    He put Brandon''s case at the back of his mind as food was the first priority.


    Caleb was silently sitting beside the fire, so Keith headed towards him, "Hey Caleb, do you want to go with Brandon to find some animals? Oh yeah, tell him that we don''t need any more fish."


    "Yes!" he eximed and ran off before Keith could change his mind.


    ''Well, at least he''s enthusiastic I guess.'' Keith thought as he walked over to Laura.


    She was silently sitting on a tree stump as she took in the beautiful sounds of nature, but frowned slightly when she heard sensed someone getting close.


    She opened her eyes and turned to look at Keith who had gotten pretty close to her by now.


    "What? I''ll go hunt something after a while, so you don''t have to worry about it." she said, sounding annoyed even though Keith didn''t really do anything.


    Hearing her words, he sighed, "Nah I''m here to change your task. Just stay at camp until you recover from whatever happenedst night. If possible, your help will be appreciated in crafting something that can preserve the meat."


    Laura''s gaze softened when she heard his words and she silently nodded, "Oh, okay. But I''ll help out. What do you want me to do?"


    Keith raised his eyebrow, but didn''t say no to assistance. He had given her an option and she made her choice.


    "It''s pretty simple. Just grab a knife and make U shaped grooves on the sticks that I give you. I''ll mark the ces where it should be done with some charcoal." he said and patted her shoulder before he headed out to find some nice sticks.


    He gathered a lot more sticks than he originally intended to, but thanks to that, he could now make two smoker tforms. Laura made some really urate grooves on every single stick and Keith took all the sticks with him and sat down beside Seraphelle.


    As he tied up the sticks, he asked her the question to one answer that he was extremely curious about.


    "Lady Seraphelle, if you don''t mind, can you tell me about your awakened ability? Like, does it increase the volume or your muscles or something like that?"

 Chapter 79: Time For A Lucky Draw!

    Seraphelle looked at him and smiled, "No, it''s the opposite actually."


    "A part of my ability is topress all my muscles and multiply my strength, speed and stamina by ten times the normal." she said and immediately, her muscles began to shrink. It only took her two seconds and this form of hers left Keith absolutely stunned.


    She was way prettier than Amelia and even though Keith didn''t really prefer her body type, he had to give her credit where the credit was due. Seraphelle was pretty slender now, having only slightly more muscle masspared to ra who was the second most "muscr" in the group.


    "I''m ten times stronger right nowpared to my muscr form." she said, grinning.


    Keith nodded, "Right. Thank you for letting me know, you you said that this was only a part of your ability."


    "Yes." she said and returned back to her normal form, "The other part of my ability allows me to gain and preserve muscle better than anyone else. And for some reason, I don''t really get as tired as the other guys who have the same muscle mass as me. So I guess I also have some energy efficient muscles too."


    She then adjusted her clothes that had shifted slightly thanks to her transformation, "And this is one of the problems I have to face when I transform."


    Keith smiled, but his thoughts were still fixated on her ability. Two secondster, he asked, "Why don''t you just stay in your slimmer form then?"


    "That, my child. Is a secret." she said as she patted his head like he was a little kid and got got up, "It''s a weakness of my ability."


    Without borating, she left him alone and walked back into her tent.


    ''Weakness huh?''


    He continued to think, but his hands were busy crafting the smoker tform. It took him a whole hour to make sure that there weren''t any problems and once he was done, he went back to the fire pit.


    Laura sat there silently with a smoker tform ced beside her. Keith took it to see if it had any faults and sighed as it did. He didn''t me her though, and instead he silently grabbed two long sticks that had a Y shape at the top and stabbed them into the ground right beside the fire pit.


    With the two sticks in the ground, he tied the smoker tform he had crafted to an almost straight stick before cing the stick on the two Y sticks that acted as holders. The tform was almost a meter away from the ground and that was exactly what he wanted.


    He simply wanted the heat to slowly dry out the meats and did not wish to cook them with mes. He grabbed a block of meat and cut it into thin slices before cing them on the smoking rack.


    Once that was set, he went back to fix the one that Laura had made.


    For the next 40+ hours, Keith got his team to focus on creating two long pits for fire that spanned 5 meters each and were parallel to each other. The ground was dug up by half a meter and there were multiple Y shaped sticks pushed into the ground with smoking racks hanging thanks to their support.


    There were 5 smoker racks on each fire pit strip, totalling up to 11 after including the first fire pit and even though there were 11 of them, they were barely enough to smoke half of the meat of one fish.


    They could do more if they had thicker chunks of meat to smoke, but Keith preferred to use thinner slices instead as these took less time. Setting all of this up took him one day and testing the results took another, bringing him to the fourth day.


    He knew that someone woulde at any moment, but he was busy checking out the slices of meat that he had ced for smoking.


    "They came out great." hemented and looked at the others before passing out the piece of meat to them, "Here''s the n. We catch one fish every morning, eat half of the meat and smoke the other half. In the afternoon, we''ll catch another one and use it for lunch and dinner.


    But that''s is only possible when we have the time to do the hunting and stuff. We don''t know what we''ll be forced to do in the name of training, so we''ll only follow step one. Catch a fish, eat half and smoke half. In the evening, we flip the meat slices over to make sure the other side loses it''s moisture too. We save the dried meat for emergencies." he said and the others nodded, happy with his ns.


    Seeing that no one had any problem with his arrangements, he let a smile escape, "Well then, I''ll go take a bath in the river. You''re sure that there isn''t anything scary there right?"


    Brandon nodded, "Yeah. Those fishes eat some weird looking nts that grow in the river. There are some other smaller fishes that they eat too, but I''ve never seen them attack me. Though, I suggest that you don''t go too far downstream. There are some really aggressive fishes there."


    "Okay, thanks. All men, assemble." he said as he nced at Edward, Nathan, Caleb and Brandon, "We gotta feel fresh before we''re thrown into hellish training. I already feel kinda sticky after not taking bath for three days."


    Nathan and Caleb nodded as they too felt the same way, but Brandon and Edward on the other hand, didn''t have the same feelings. This was because Brandon took a nice bath every time he went out to hunt and Edward was free for the whole day so he too went out to swim in the river.


    Caleb had gone out on the second day, but that time, they didn''t go to the river and tried to hunt onnd, which just proved unsessful.


    But nheless, all the guys did rush into the river to have some fun and also clean themselves. Keith followed behind them, but as he stared at the colorful gacha wheel in front of him after waiting for almost two long months, he smiled.

 Chapter 80: The Four Types of Energy

    Even though he now had enough of the "mysterious energy" to spin the wheel, he could tell that he hadn''t reached the max as the gacha wheel only had white and yellow sections. But he never had any ns on spinning the wheel so early as he had a theory in mind that he wished to work on.


    ''Creating my own system... I should try it.'' he thought as he took a deep breath and stared at the calm river water. The night had just passed and it was early in the morning right now, which meant that the water would be extremely cold.


    Even then, he closed his eyes and steeled his mind before taking off his clothes. With just an underwear on, he jumped in. The cold assaulted his body, making him shiver uncontrobly but after a few minutes, he got used to the cold. It still felt cold, but he wasn''t shivering anymore.


    With is body submerged in the water up to his neck, he focused on his system creation.


    As he tried to control his powers, he recalled the one line that had appeared on the window of Maria, the archbishop''s room back when he was too shocked thanks to the message that said, "Found you, my one and only Fwyd Chicken!"


    ''So this whole system gacha and ability to give out systems were both thanks to the hidden divinity that''s inside me. Should I consider the so called mysterious energy as Divine energy instead?'' he thought before he began focusing his powers.


    The energy that was consumed when he spun the gacha wheel always felt differentpared to the so-called mental energy that he used to give out system rewards for others. They were inherently different, but Keith had originally thought that the energy consumed when he spun the wheel, was spiritual energy.


    The novel written my Red Snow, or in other words Emma nkton, had four different types of energies. Physical, Mental, Spiritual and Divine. There were others like Chaos and Demonic energies, but those were just corrupted derivations of the first four kinds. There were a few other kinds too, but they weren''t given too much importance in the novel.


    Most awakened abilities consumed either physical, mental of both physical and mental energies to manifest in the real world, but there were a few that utilised Spritual energy too.


    An example of this could be ra''s Divine Blessing or Amelia''s Midnight Princess.


    Abination of Mental and Physical based on whom Keith had met until now, was Laura''s snake transformation and Brandon''s stone skin. Every single transformation type was abination or Mental and physical energies.


    This was the same for almost every single physical boost as they were all based on solely physical energy.


    If there was one that was abination of all physical, mental and spiritual energies, then that would be Nathan''s summoning of his Holy Knight armor set that boosted his physical abilities too.


    Adam''s was abination of Mental and Spiritual as it did not really boost his physical abilities and only summoned bullets. But there was a chance of it having some physical energy involved as the bullets existed permanently after their creation.


    Regr summoned things or creatures would disappear once the user was exhausted, but Adam''s never did.


    The first three energies were present in every single human being, but those that awakened, possessed the ability to control one to three of these energies in a specific way that was directly imprinted onto their DNA.


    But everything would change when it came to Divine energy as it was on a league of it''s own. There were two ways to produce Divine energy, or in other words, cultivate.


    First method was the one that independent gods used, also called the true gods by the author of the novel. Each one of these gods'' had ess to a specificw of the universe from life and death to space and time.


    As long as things or events urred that had any kind of rtion to a specific universalw, then divine energy would be produced and would go to the god/goddess who was in charge of that specificw.


    It was thanks to this reason that none of the True gods had any interest in creating any churches.


    On the other hand, there were the "False Gods" whose existence could be exined by their dependence over humans to survive. In fact, they were actually just awakened humans who had reached enough strength to make people think that they were god-like existences.


    These gods needed two things to produce divine energy. It was the so called faith, which was basically abination of mental and spiritual energy. But this was only 50% of what they''d need to create divine energy.


    Along with faith, they''d need dependence on a specific type of action. For god of war, he''d love to see humans wage war against each other as this would help him umte a lot of divine energy at once.


    The only reason why the continent was at peace for almost 2 to 3 centuries was thanks to Balmond, the god of war, needing to umte faith. Without enough faith, no matter how much the humans waged war, he wouldn''t be able to umte divine energy.


    This was the exact reason why God of Money, Mammon was so powerful. People loved money, they used money all the time and he had a lot of people praying to him for a stable life or great fortune.


    Thanks to this, it didn''t matter if it was war or peaceful times, he''d manage to get his share of divine energy no matter what.


    This was one of the core reasons for the God of Money, Mammon to be so strong. Second was the goddess of protection, Seraphina. Third, fourth and fifth ces were taken by Galen the God of Medicine, Balmond the God of War, and finally, Goddess of Art, Seraphelle who was canonically the twin sister of Goddess Seraphina.


    ''I have a clear path to bing a god, but it''s going to be extremely hard and dangerous if I don''t act carefully.'' he thought.

 Chapter 81: Unexpected Face

    [A/N: To the handful of readers that I have, I''ve decided to start a quest based extra chapter releases. Rest assured, it''s nothing too mboyant. It''ll be based on Golden Tickets and since we currently have 16, we''ll start the count from there.]


    5 Golden Tickets = 1 Extra chapter (To make things easier, I''ll upload extra chapter once we get to 20 GT)


    My regr release rate will be 3 chapters per day until the end of this month.


    Starting Date: 9th November 2024


    Update: Current GT count: 71


    Extra Chapters Needed: 11


    Extra Chapters Posted: 2


    Pending: 9 (I''m gonna die at this rate so I''ll be changing the rules. No more extra chapters for GT *sobs*)


    The current extra chapter count will stay the same since I don''t wish to betray any of your trust. But instead of GT, I''ll change it to gifts instead.


    Luxury Car: 1 Extra Chapter


    Dragon: 2 Extra Chapters


    Castle: 4 Extra Chapters


    Additional: Thank you for all the support guys, it means a lot.


    *************


    It took Keith a whole two minutes to figure out how to use his divine energy. Originally, he expected it to be hard, butter realised that it was pretty easy as all he had to do was imagine something rted to systems and it would just happen.


    Just like the nk translucent white screen in front of him.


    He yed around with the system for a few minutes until he was forced out of the river by others, but during this time, he found out one important thing. Creating certain system based things worked simr to programming from his old world, but it was way more simple here.


    There was no need to learn any programmingnguage, but he still had to give his system every single necessary instruction for possible scenarios. If given enough time, he could technically automate the entire system, but that would drain a lot of divine energy from him.


    By the time he got back to his camp, he was done with creating a very simple system but the gacha wheel that had white and yellow sections before, only had white now.


    ''I should be able to add a few more things.'' he thought, but decided to put it aside when he saw an unfamiliar face in his camp. Or the right word to use was "mask" instead of face.


    The person wore pure white robes and had a in white mask that covered their faces. The only thing that Keith could make out from seeing the person was that it was a female thanks to the slight bump in the chest area.


    "You guys have ten minutes to get ready." she said and stood still while Keith and the others rushed to the tents to change their clothes.


    Keith didn''t wear any uniform this time and instead decided to put on a well fitting tunic. It was the same as a shirt, so it didn''t feel too different. As for his legs, he just put on some regr trousers and used a belt to secure it before walking out of the tent.


    This was also when he noticed something unnatural and it was ra. One of her most important assets had shrunk and Keith just stood still, absolutely shocked. None of the other guys hade out yet, so he silently walked over to her and asked curiously.


    "Hey, um. I know I shouldn''t be asking this by how did they shrink? Do you also have the ability to transform?"


    ra''s face went red as she instinctively covered her chest even though she was wearing clothes, but Amelia clicked her tongue, "You wouldn''t understand. Haaa... but I''ll tell you. You see, if they make her run, they''ll bounce too much and that hurts if it happens for a long time. So she used a long strip of cloth to secure them in ce."


    "Oh okay." he said and turned to look at ra with an apologetic gaze, "Sorry, I didn''t know."


    "It''s fine." she replied and smiled gently.


    The other guys walked out one by one and once everyone was ready, the masked woman nodded, "Make a line and grab each other''s shoulders. We''ll be going somewhere else temporarily. Only for a few hours, don''t worry." she said when she saw them giving her depressed looks.


    She understood that they did not wish to leave behind such a nice spot, so she rified immediately.


    Keith let out a sigh of relief and so did the others before forming a line and grabbing each other''s shoulders. Every one of them had a few pieces of dried fish in their hands, but thedy didn''t stop them. Instead, she ced her hand on Laura who was standing at the front and the surroundings immediately changed.


    They had nned to eat after taking a bath, but they hadn''t expected to see an instructor ready to take them somewhere. Luckily they had some food ready, so they weren''t too worried.


    Keith noticed the bracelet on the instructor''s hand glow for a few seconds before dimming down.


    ''Hmm, I don''t feel nauseous like the first time.'' he thought and looked at the others, none of whom showed any signs of nausea.


    "Feel free to eat until every other group gets here." the instructor said and walked away.


    Keith didn''t wait for anyone and instantly began to chew on the dried fish meat. Luckily, it wasn''t too dry and hard. It was slightly chewy and was salted pretty well too, which went well with the taste of the dry fish meat.


    As he ate, he looked around and saw a few teams nearby, all sitting on the sand of the beach.


    ''Well, this ce is pretty pleasant... but if they''re going to train us here, it really will be hell.'' he thought, dreading the worst case scenario.


    They were currently at a beach that had coconut trees almost everywhere. In front was the blue ocean and at the back was a decently dense forest. Keith also noticed a bunch of shelters made from coconut tree leaves.


    ''Hmm, it''s a nice ce so whoever picked this spot made a good choice. There''s a lot ofrge coconuts for water and they''re extremely rich in minerals, vitamins and micro nutrients. Though, I hope they don''t each too much coconut flesh or they''ll suffer from diarrhoea.''


    Just as he was thinking, he heard Calebin, "Not the beach... I''ve trained at a beach before and I don''t want to do it again..."


    Keith was about to ask Caleb more about the training, but that was when he noticed a familiar face. It wasn''t Timmy and nor was it Amelia''s brother, Adrian.


    It was someone he never expected to see before the war, and especially not during a training program conducted by the churches as this guy was never supposed to join any kind of church before the war as an official member.


    ''What in the hell is rk doing here?''


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 82: Keiths First Plan

    If there was one person Keith was confident in knowing about, then that would be rk, the main protagonist of the novel. But there was one problem. He wasn''t supposed to be a part of any church at the moment.


    Keith stared at him with a loss for words, but the more he stared, the more he felt like something was off.


    ''rk should have only been eighteen years old right now... and he was extremely outgoing and naive back then, but this guy in front of me... feels more like the rk during the end of the novel.'' he thought and frowned.


    ''It''s fine, there''s no need to panic.'' he calmed his beating heart, ''He doesn''t know about me so I''ll stay on the sidelines and observe.''


    As he silently kept his eye on rk, more and more people began to appear on the beach and all of a sudden, rk also had his eyes locked onto one person just like Keith.


    Keith followed rk''s gaze and saw that he was looking at a familiar hateful face, Timmy.


    Seeing this, Keith couldn''t help but squint his eyes slightly.


    ''Don''t tell me... is this even possible?'' he thought, frowning as he still had his eyes on rk, ''Did he regress back in time? If he did, does he have the powers from his past life or did he start anew?''


    He had too many questions, but he was certain that he would be able to get his answers soon. rk never knew Timmy during this time and this would continue for a few years after the war ends.


    So seeing rk staring at Timmy only meant one thing; he knew him.


    And Keith had also seen rk ball his fists, which meant that he was either pissed or had an aggressive attitude towards Timmy. This was only possible if rk had experienced bad things due to him and this happened in the novel.


    Keith took a deep breath and closed his eyes. It took him a few seconds to calm down and this time, he did not focus on rk and instead, he looked around.


    Most people were already here and only a few minutester, multiple instructors went back to their respective groups. The maskeddy walked over to Keith''s group and looked at them.


    "You''ll need a name for your team. Anything will work." she said and waited for them to decide on one.


    Half of them looked at Keith while the other half looked at Brandon. Keith smiled slightly and patted Brandon''s shoulder, "As an official leader, you should take this."


    Brandon nodded, not caring much about the spit in people''s opinions about who the team leader should have been, "Well, Team Sera should work right?"


    Thedy nodded, "Okay, team Sera it is. From now onwards, you guys will call me instructor Sera."


    ''Damn, there''s too many Sera''s now. There you, the team, Seraphelle, Goddess Seraphelle and Goddess Seraphina.'' Keith thought and shook his head as he was pretty bad with remembering names.


    "Anyways, the first task for you guys is to drag wooden logs from the forest back to the beach. There will be other teams that will be taking care of cutting the trees. Also, this will go on until noon and then, you''ll be allowed to go to the temporary market that we set up for you guys.


    Today, you''ll get free lunch, but from tomorrow, you''ll have to bring your own things to trade for various items. The market will have a lot of things. Meat, grains, flour, spices, salt, weapons, traps and even clothes. Keep in mind though, that the prices of these items will be expensive. I suggest trading with the others instead of using the market.


    You will have an hour of free time to eat and do your trades, but after that, there will be variousbat type events along with recreational events." she said and looked around to see if the other instructors were done with their speeches.


    When she saw that everyone was still talking, she looked back at her team and said, "Keep in mind that most of your actions will have an impact on your grades when you''re here. Good trades, will get you points from the money church. Performing well during the recreational events will help you with Art Chuch.


    Protecting your teammates and others from various things will of course, grant you points from protection church. Medicine and War churches are the same, so something rted to those churches and you''ll get points.


    There will be two weeks worth of siege event which is specifically made to get you points from the war church. There are other ways too, but this will be the best source for war church points."


    Keith took in all the information and nodded silently. His goal was to get top two for protection church, but for that to happen, he would have to rally all the members and teams that belonged to protection church first.


    ''Too much work....'' heined in his mind, but he didn''t have any ns to withdraw from the task, ''I''ll see what I can do but there''s no point in stressing myself out. Let''s just carry whatever logs these guys want and during that time, I can think about the variables.''


    Instructor Sera saw the other teams getting into positions and looked at her own, "Alright then, you guys stand right there and wait for people to bring the logs to you."


    Keith and the others looked a the ce she pointed at before they walked over.


    After sending her team to a good spot, instructor Sera left. Keith looked around and walked over to Amelia, knowing too well that he''d have to wait for a few long minutes for the first log to get to his team.


    "Hey, you''re good at talking to people, so I want you to do something for us." he said as he got closer to Amelia.


    She looked up at him and nodded, curious about his ns.


    "Just talk to the other teams from our Church and get them to cooperate with us. Suggest free help and resources as long as it isn''t too much. I want our church to get the first or at least the second ce."

 Chapter 83: Clarks Similarities

    By the time the first log arrived to Keith''s team, Amelia was done talking to four teams, all of whom agreed to cooperate with each other and decided to spread the word.


    Once she saw that the logs had started to arrive, she decided toe back but Keith sent her back to talk to more people. He knew she was physically stronger than him at the moment, but she was the best person for the job.


    Seeing her run off happily, he turned to look at his team, "Welp, I have a n where we wouldn''t have to do too much work. But it''ll take some time to set up."


    He then pointed at the beach, "See, from here to that ce, the ground is sloped. We can use this to roll the logs, but since the ground here is made of sand, it''ll just make things hard. Instead, we''ll ce two long rows of logs parallel to each other. Then we can use these two rows to roll our logs down there."


    Everyone listened to him and nodded. Why go through physical strain when there was a way to reduce their work load?


    Keith dragged the first and second logs and ced them side by side, with their ends touching each other. Brandon followed his example and ced to more logs parallel to the where Keith ced his logs.


    The two rows were approximately one meter apart from each other.


    As for the fifth log, Keith looked at Laura who was carrying this one and said, "Just ce it on these logs and push it with your feet."


    Laura nodded and did as he told her to. The log rolled down and stopped once it hit the sand, after which she ced the log beside the other logs, creating a path.


    This process continued and in one hour, the passage wasplete. It took so long only because they were getting logs a little slowly. Thanks to this, everyone in the team was perfectly fine and weren''t too exhausted.


    Keith was weak, but he had his regeneration to keep him going. On the other hand, it was Caleb who was struggling the most.


    "Well, the physically straining job is done. Do you guys mind if me and Caleb take a short break?" he asked and patted Caleb''s back.


    Brandon looked at the two of them and then turned to look at the others before nodding, "Sure. We don''t want injured people so it''s better if you guys rest."


    "Thanks!" Keith said and jumped over the sand. It was warm, but since there was shade from the trees, it wasn''t too hot.


    He looked up at Caleb and asked, "Do you have any other talents? I''m not trying to find faults but there must be a reason for you to be selected as an inquisitor, right?"


    Caleb nodded, "I''m physically weak, but... I''m well versed in the weak points of people and I don''t have any problems while harming animals or people. Laura puked the first time and Nathan was even worse. He pissed his pants too... and they didn''t even kill anyone. It was me. All they did was see, and it effected them so much.


    But I know the reality. The only reason I was able to kill that man, was because he was tied up. I''m very weak and I have nobat experience. I have the knowledge to strike at the right ces, but my body doesn''t have enough speed and power to strike the way I want it to.


    It''s like... it''s like my brain and body are two different beings."


    Caleb let out a sigh, "If things go on this way, I''ll get kicked out of the team and I''ll probably be forced to work as a servant at the church instead."


    Keith listened silently and nodded, "Hmm, I''m weak too. I used to be even weaker two months ago. The first thing you must do is to focus on eating a lot of food and then you must work out. It''ll take some time since it''s a slow process, but in maybe a year or two, you''ll be able to control your body the way you want to."


    Caleb didn''t say anything and nor did Keith. Both of them silently stared at the coconut tree above them, deep in their own thoughts.


    ''In the future, if I get a system that can boost physical strength, I''ll give it to Caleb. He has potential, but his awakened ability isn''t all that special...'' Keith thought and turned to look at the two groups beside him that had been fighting since the past one hour, ever since the work had begun.


    It was Timmy and rk''s group, but Keith really did not expect rk to be this aggressive with his actions. Though they were fighting, Keith didn''t bother to help or get involved at the moment. His suspicions wereing true and he needed to change his ns as soon as possible.


    As he thought about rk, he suddenly remembered the one thing that made him feel chills.


    ''He has the same taste in women as me... and he''s actually a lot more aggressive when ites to romance. I''m a hundred percent sure that he''lle for ra.. damn, I thought I could avoid him.''


    He ced his palms on his face and let out a long sigh, ''I''m not gonna let you take her away, rk. Not when I finally started to trust me.''


    But there was another problem. rk was actively going for Timmy while Keith was doing it behind the scenes through Vincent. ra was a intelligent human who could see and hear things so it was pretty simple way to get close to her.


    ''No, rk still doesn''t know ra''s backstory. So he''s fighting Timmy for his own sake. Things will get difficult if he finds out and starts doing things to please her. Fuck, this isplicated and I don''t like this.''


    He let out a groan and looked at rk once again, ''I''ll prepare for now and see how you''ll act. If you doe for ra, consider yourself my target.''

 Chapter 84 Let Me Fight Him

    Just like Keith had expected, rk did try toe in contact with ra.


    Once they were done with log transportation, they had to go and receive their share of food, he tried to cut the line. Coincidentally, the ce he picked was right behind ra and that was exactly where Amelia was standing.


    Keith turned around and looked at rk who was two inches taller than him, slightly more muscr that Brandon and had a majestic silvery white beard.


    Before Keith could express his dissatisfaction, he saw rk''s head jerk forward.


    Amelia pped his head angrily and red at him, "Oy, you fat bear bastard, why the hell are you cutting the line? And even if you''re cutting the line, why are youing here instead of going to the front? Which church are you from, huh?!"


    She wasn''t quiet about it and her voice was high, gaining attention from various other teams in an instant.


    rk looked at her and frowned.


    "What?" she asked aggressively, but he ignored her and got out of the line before moving to the back.


    Keith followed him with his eyes and nodded inwardly, ''Indeed, he''ll just walk away from things if he can''t use violence to solve them and this is no ce to use violence either. But I''m sure that he''ll keep an eye on Amelia.''


    He shifted his gaze to Amelia and smiled, "That was great!"


    "What do you mean great? That bastard just came here and stood in front of me like nothing was wrong. Which church picked him up from the gutters and didn''t bother teaching him manners, huh?" she asked loudly and looked around, clearly waiting for answers.


    In that moment, someone from the war god''s church walked forward and gave her a slight respectful bow, "I apologise miss Amelia, he''s a new recruit and he takes mercenary missions. He might be a bit rowdy, so I hope you forgive him."


    Using this chance, Timmy walked forward andined too, "How is it possible to forgive him? Not just this incident, from morning, he''s been trying to sabotage my team''s progress! I suggest kicking him out of the training camp as he''s causing too much problems."


    rk on the other hand, nonchntly looked away, making Keith squint his eyes.


    ''He''s plotting something... that bastard.''


    Keith took a deep breath and shook his head, ''Just wait and watch for now... or... I''ll give him a trash system and keep tabs on him.''


    Even though he thought that, he did not act on it as he wanted to experiment a little with creating his own system.


    Just before the fight escted, the announcer old man let out a fake cough, demanding everyone''s attention.


    "Fighting is not against the rules. You''ll only be punished if you harm someone a bit too much." he said and pointed at a bunch of sumo rings on the beach behind him.


    They looked like traditional sumo rings, with thick ropes used as a boundary but these rings had a diameter of ten meters.


    "Today''s event will bebat based and the usage of weapons or armors is not allowed. Even the ones that can be summoned with your awakened ability are also not allowed." he added before continuing, "There will be neutral judges to watch your fights and you''re allowed to pick whichever team you want to fight. As long as both parties agree, the fight will be official.


    The teams that didn''t manage to get any opponents will be paired up by us, so I hope you guys won''tinter. Both the winning and losing teams will get certain points based on their performance, which you can use to buy certain things.


    Oh yes, another thing. The fights will have to be one on one, and the limit to the number of fights will depend on the team with the lesser members. You guys can also reduce this number as long as both the teams agree to it.


    You have ten minutes to pick your opponent team. Good luck all of you."


    Keith saw Timmy run over to rk''s team, trying to challenge him. Unfortunately, rk ignored him and looked at his own teammates, who amounted to just two people.


    Once he was done talking, he brought his team towards Amelia, "We challenge you."


    Amelia frowned and looked at Brandon, hoping that he would reject the guy, but Brandon nodded, "I don''t know why you want to pick on my team, but we won''t back out from a challenge. A total of three members, right?"


    "Yes. I don''t particrly have anybat rted abilities and it''s the same with my teammates." rk said and pointed at the guy beside him, "This kid here can turn invisible and the girl beside him is his sister and she can summon arge bag that can carry things."


    Experience new tales on empire


    "And make them weightless..." the girl added meekly and rk nodded, "Yes that."


    Hearing this, Brandon grinned, "Heh, you guys will lose for sure. We have Nathan who can use a holy knight armor set, I can use stone skin and we have Laura who can transform into a snake. You guys... are very impulsive."


    "We''ll win." rk said and walked towards an empty ring with his teammates right behind him.


    Keith sighed and patted Brandon''s shoulder before reminding, "Nathan can''t use his armor set. Weapons are not allowed... were you even listening?"


    "I mean, he can still use his enhanced physical abilities right?"


    "Not without his armor on, you dumbass." Amelia frowned as she looked at Brandon who shrugged, "It''s fine. We still have me. I can guarantee a win and Laura should be able to get that girl too. They don''t have any kind of abilities, so we have an advantage. Even though we can''t use Nathan, we have ra. She can easily beat me up if I don''t have my stone skin on."


    Amelia nodded, "That''s right, there''s nothing to worry about. Though, let me correct you Brandon. ra can beat you up even when you have your stone skin on. I saw it happen."


    Before Brandon could reply, Keith ced his hand on Brandon''s shoulder, "Let me fight rk."

 Chapter 85 Using Rules To His Advantage

    The two teams stood face to face while the instructor looked at them, "Here''s the rules. Apart from the stuff that you just heard, anyone who wins a round will be allowed to fight another round." Stay tuned to empire


    "You won''t lose if you fall or faint when you''re inside the boundary, but if you stay outside for more than ten seconds, it will count as a loss. Any questions?"


    rk and Brandon shook their heads. Brandon confidently walked into the ring and seeing this, rk sent in the invisible guy.


    Seeing him, Brandon flexed his muscles, clearly trying to show off, "What''s your name kid?"


    "Cloud..." he said and immediately turned invisible. Next, his clothes were tossed to the side as they were still visible.


    "Heh, you have to be naked to use your skill properly?" Brandon asked and activated his awakened ability, growing ayer of stone over his body.


    Cloud didn''t respond, and no one could see where he was. Brandon tried to look for his footsteps, but there were none.


    "You''re just standing in one ce." he said with a grin on his face before punching the ce where Cloud originally was, only for his fist to hit nothing but air. The next second, he felt immense pain in his eyes.


    "Argh, damn you! You threw sand on my eyes!" he yelled and randomly threw his fists, hitting nothing but air every single time.


    Brandon then grabbed a bunch of sand and tossed it around, not knowing what to do. Keith shook his head and just waited for Brandon to lose as he knew that the chances of him winning was low now.


    Minutes passed with Brandon attacking nothing but air. He tried a lot of things, but every single attack was wasted. By this time, even he realised that he couldn''t win, so he raised his hand, "I give up."


    He walked out of the ring, hoping to find his team, only to get pped my rk.


    "Damn. Fuck." he cursed and punched out, which rk easily dodged before kicking him away.


    Amelia ran over and helped Brandon back to the team before she and ra began to help him with cleaning his eyes.


    "Laura, you''re more suitable to fight that kid. You should be able to sense him through vibrations and stuff right?" he asked and Laura nodded, "Yes, I should be able to smell him with my tongue too."


    Saying this, she walked into the ring and looked at the instructor.


    "Cloud huh? Do you wish to go for a round two?" she asked and rk was the one who answered instead, "He will continue."


    "Let the fight begin." the instructor said as she nodded.


    Laura immediately transformed into a yellow python and hissed. Two secondster, she darted towards the right and circled around the air. Which was physically not possible, but that was how it looked to the others as Cloud was invisible.


    She dragged him back to the ring and blocked off his nose and mouth, until he fainted. Once Cloud was out cold, she transformed back to her human form and grabbed him by the ankle before tossing him outside.


    "He had been standing outside all along, this is just cheating!" sheined as she red at the instructor, but rk scoffed at her.


    "Do you have any proof? As far as I can tell, he clearly went outside one second before you caught him."


    The instructor really did not have any way of confirming whether Cloud was in or out, so she agreed with rk even though she too felt like Cloud had been standing outside all along. She felt helpless, but she had to abide by the rules.


    "rk is right. Neither you guys, nor I have any proof so there is nothing I can do. Nheless, Cloud is out now." she said and looked at rk, "Who''s going in this time?"


    The girl silently walked in after rk pushed her forward. She meekly stood inside the ring while Laura scoffed. The more she looked at this team, the more she hated them.


    "A bunch of cheaters. Tch." she cursed and clicked her tongue before running towards the girl even without transforming. Seeing Laura rush towards her, she crouched down and covered her head with her hands, clearly afraid.


    But Laura didn''t show any mercy and directly kicked her, pushing her out of the ring with ease. The girl sat on the ground, with tears in her eyes and just as rk was about to go to her, the instructor spoke.


    "If you touch her while she''s officially still fighting, both of you will be disqualified."


    rk stared at her for a few seconds, raising the tension in the air before he suddenly nodded, "Okay."


    "She''s been out for more than ten seconds, so she''s disqualified." the instructor announced.


    Keith had been counting on the side too, and he was surprised as it had only been nine seconds, not ten. Just from this, he could tell that the instructor didn''t like the way rk''s team was doing things either.


    rk didn''t cause any fuss and nodded, "Okay. I''ll go next."


    As he walked into the ring, he nced at everyone on his opponents team. Keith watched him and the moment they made eye contact, his pinky twitched.


    ''....''


    Just from one look, he knew that rk would overpower Laura and that was exactly what happened. The moment he entered the ring, he dashed towards her as he kicked up a wall of sand and punched her right in the face, sending her flying along with a few droplets of blood that fell onto the sand, following Laura''s trajectory.


    Keith took a deep breath, getting ready to fight, but just then, the instructor raised her hand, "rk, disqualified. You started the fight before my signal."


    "...." rk was silent for a few seconds as he red at her, "You never said that the fight was supposed to start only after the signal. The first two fight also didn''t have any signal rule either."


    "Both in the first and second match, the participants had enough time to get ready. You attacked the moment you walked in. Are you saying that I''m being unfair?" she asked, challenging him.

 Chapter 86 I Know All About You

    rk didn''t say anything in response and simply looked away.


    Keith, who originally wanted to fight rk got into the ring, "Well, we won but I still wish to fight you." he said and then looked at the instructor, "Will that be possible?"


    "Sure. I''ll keep watch just in case someone gets too hurt."


    Keith looked at rk and the buffed guy nodded, "You''re a cocky guy. You don''t have any ability that''ll help you inbat but you still want to fight me after seeing what I did to your friend?"


    "I don''t know about being cocky, but I can confirm that I do have a big cock." Keith said, knowing well that rk absolutely hated lewd jokes.


    rk red at him but Keith shrugged in response, "Oh looks like I''ve made you angry. Don''t worry, even if yours is small, it''s fine. A lot ofdies will still ept you as long as you have stamina."


    "Can we start?" rk asked, his voice cold.


    Keith stared at him for a second and exhaled, "Yes."


    The moment the word left his mouth, rk moved forward with his fist clenched and punched outwards. Keith did not move his head to the side, and instead crouched down before sending a punch flying upwards.


    Then, there was silence. rk had trouble breathing as he fell sideways like a statue, the shock from the pain immobilizing him.


    Keith stood back up and looked down at rk, "Well, looks like I won."


    He knew very well that the only reason he won, was thanks to him knowing how rk usually fought. He always punched forward and if the punch missed, he would grab his opponent by their hand and pull their head down to kick them with his knee.


    This worked most of the time thanks to people instinctively dodging sideways, but Keith just went below and used the perfect opportunity to crack his eggs.


    "If you want to impress ra, you gotta do better bitch." Keith cursed at him before walking back to his team. He knew rk''s most preferred way of impressing girls and it was through showing off his fighting skills.


    In the novel, he somehow managed to get involved with multiple girls sexually and he also deserted almost all of them by the end of the novel if they didn''t get strong enough. The moment rk challenged his team, Keith saw him nce at ra, which gave him the answer to his question.


    As he got back to his team, his thoughts wandered, ''He''s fast, very fast. But it''s not as outrageous as it was in the novel during this time. What caused this change...''


    rk''s awakened ability was simr to certain monkey warrior race in an animated TV series in Keith''s old world. It wasn''t the exact same, but it had a lot of simrities.


    Only one condition had to be met for rk to get a power boost, but there were other two that could help increase the boost in power even further. First was for him to get to a near-death state and recover. This was the main condition while the second one was dependent on how intense the fight was.


    The more his mind and body was stimted, the greater the physical boost would be. If he simply stabbed himself and recovered, then the power boost would be negligible.


    Thest and most important condition was the nutrition or in simple words, calories in his body. The more he had, the better the boost, but this also went against the second condition as the more he would fight, the more calories he would burn.


    There were other variable too, such as his intentions. Both his mental and physical states had to align with death. His body had to be close to death, while his mind had to resist the idea of giving up on his life.


    If rk ever nned or even had a thought of getting hit intentionally to boost his powers, then the boost in power would get reduced by a lot.


    Keith thought about it and as he saw rk get up from the sand, he realised something important.


    ''He''s a regressor and he never knew all the conditions of his power. Especially the second and third conditions... so maybe he did try and get into fights, but wasn''t able to get as much power boost as before thanks to his fighting experience from his previous life. He probably yed it safe and only took fights that he could win, just like I do....''


    All of them were spections, but Keith had a feeling that at least half of them were true.


    ''During this time in the novel, his punches would make a snapping sound whenever he punched.'' he thought and chuckled, ''He''s either holding back, or the regression indirectly nerfed* his ass.''


    Keith was both happy and slightly sad. On one side, rk seemed to have hots for ra, which Keith did not like. And on the other side, rk was one of his favourite characters. Seeing him getting nerfed didn''t feel good.


    ''I gotta be realistic. It''s better this way, but I need him to be strong if I want to sit back and chill while he does all the world saving for me. I don''t want to take action directly...'' he thought and nced at ra.


    She smiled at him and whispered, "I thought you''d get punched for a second there. His punch was very fast."


    "Yeah... let''s just say that the only reason I was able to dodge him was because of my instincts." he said and looked at the instructor, "Can we leave now?"


    "Oh sure. But you''re also free to fight against other teams. Treat them as friendly matches. The goal of this training camp isn''t to make you guys fight among each other, but to have you guys improve."


    Brandon looked at her with his red eyes, "I hope that was easy to do... thest time I was in a camp, it was so messy."


    Nerf: Reduce effectiveness/power of something.

 Chapter 87 Fighting Snakeman, Adjusting Sensitivity

    Almost an hourter, Keith smiled at the team in front of him which was from the Art Church.


    "Thank you for agreeing to spar." he said and Caleb hurriedly nodded beside him.


    The leader of the team gave them a curt nod, "No worries. We hope that our newbies can also gain some experience with this."


    Brandon patted Keith''s back, "Go for it, and try tost long. That guy there has an ability simr to mine."


    Keith silently walked into the ring and got into a fighting stance, crouching down slightly with one arm loosely outstretched and the other close to his face, the fingers facing outwards in a w like way.


    The guy in front of him made a constipated expression and two secondster, a thinyer of yellow snake scales formed on top of his body. From just one nce, Keith couldn''t make out how thick or strong these scales were, so he felt slightly nervous.


    "Let''s learn from each other." the snake man said and he walked forward, looking slightly overconfident with his long strides.


    Once he covered enough distance, he sent his foot swinging towards Keith''s face, which was grabbed instantly with the hand that had it''s fingers pointed outwards like a w.


    "That was quite obvious." Keithmented as he used his other hand to grab the snakeman''s leg, "And now, time to eat some sand!"


    He pushed himself upwards and used all his strength to try and lift the snakeman. His n was to lift him up and smash him down onto the sand, but the only thing he managed to do was make him lose his bnce and fall sideways.


    ".... I wish I was stronger." hemented as he let go of the guy''s leg.


    Snakeman got up and this time, he faced Keith seriously, "Yeah, you''re weak. But apparently I have a really bad fighting sense..."


    Keith did not expect this, but he nodded, waiting for him to act, which he did. Punches and kicks flew forward, most of them hitting Keith effortlessly while the others missed by a small margin.


    Snakeman was simply just punching randomly, but thanks to Keith''sck of fighting experience and weak physicality, he was put at a disadvantage.


    After a few seconds of getting hit, he decided to give up on defence and went bonkers on punching snakeman. The instant he let down his guard, he got punched right in the face. Even though it hurt like shit, he sent a punch flying back at snakeman, making him stumble backwards.


    Seeing his reaction, Keith finally remembered something important.


    ''Oh wait, let me reduce my pain sensitivity.'' he thought and used his sensitivity control to reduce the amount of pain he could feel. It pushed it down to almost nothing, but stopped before hitting the "no pain" mark.


    He needed to feel something.


    The snake skin did not cover the guy''s face and thanks to this, Keith was able to make him feel pain. He had the option to increase the guy''s sensitivity to pain, but decided against it as his goal here was to learn and gain some fighting experience, not to kill or gravely injure someone.


    Both of them punched and kicked each other, but everyone around the ring noticed the difference in Keith. He was barely reacting to snakeman''s hits and always retaliated with his own strike.


    The snake skin wasn''t too tough. It wasn''t like Brandon''s stone skin, which was able to negate all direct unarmed attacks by regr humans. Kicks, punches and any kind of direct unarmed hits did not harm him in any way.


    But the snake skin wasn''t the same. It was like having an extremely thin chainmail on his body. It helped with reducing the damage received, but that was all it could do. It didn''t give him any kind of physical boost, and nor did it give him any kind of regeneration.


    Thanks to this, Keith''s hits were effective even though their damage was slightly reduced. It was the same as a billion ants being able to kill an elephant. His punches were weak, but he could hit a lot more once he stopped feeling pain.


    His regeneration helped him out, but it was not enough to keep up with the damage his body was taking at the moment.


    As minutes passed, he felt more and more tired. And as he got more tired, he began to feel pain in various parts of his body.


    Once this reached a certain point, he took a step backwards, "I give up."


    "Heh." the snakeman said as he fell to his knee, but Keith on the other hand did a foolish thing. He brought his sensitivity back to normal, curious about how much damage he took, only for the sudden influx of signals to send his brain into an overdrive.


    His eyeballs rolled backwards while his body went absolutely stiff as he fell backwards.


    "Oi." Brandon said and he rushed over to Keith''s side, shocked by the sudden change of events. Unfortunately, they had no healers in their team so all they could do was carry some water and ssh his face.


    Keith slowly opened his eyes, "Ugh... I went too far." he grumbled and tried to stand up, only to feel intense pain in his abdominal area. This was the same with most of his upper body. Luckily, the snakeman didn''t hit Keith''s legs too much so there wasn''t too much pain there.


    Even though his legs were rtively fine, was just unable to stand up thanks to his abs feeling like hard rocks. His muscles refused to move, so after a few tries, he just gave up and looked at his team with a pained expression.


    "Looks like I won''t be able to do much for the next few days... unless there''s someone here with the ability to bring me back to normal."


    ra ced her hand on his chest with a serious look on her face, "...."


    She stared at him for a few seconds and looked up at Amelia,municating with her friend through her eyes alone.


    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and


    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

 Chapter 88 Quest Upgrade Battle Gods Regeneration

    Keith lie in the shade of a tree with Amelia sitting beside him. She had a frown on her face as she looked at him.


    "Can you talk? I have a few questions and the curiosity is getting out of control." she asked him.


    Keith opened his eyes and looked at her, "Yeah, shoot."


    "You told me not to throw usations at you, so now I''m asking you questions instead." she said and began, "I want to know why you rejected ra''s offer to take care of you. Why did you say that you''d be fine with anyone other than her? I didn''t ask her but I''m sure that she felt hurt."


    "....." Keith silently looked at her for a few seconds before nodding, "Good progress. At least you didn''t call me an asshole then and there. Well.. the reason I didn''t want her beside me is thanks to Timmy. That bastard is right there, so if he sees us together, it might be a problem.


    I mean, technically the chances are low. But if he sees us together too often, then it''ll be troublesome. I''m just trying to reduce the amount of time we spend alone while we''re under the scrutiny of everyone else.


    Heck, I literally share a bed with her back in our camp and you know it. It''s not like I don''t want to spend time with her. I''m just trying to keep trouble away from her and me."


    Hearing his exnation, Amelia nodded, "Makes sense. Now my second question, why did you try to fight that bastard when ra is a way better fighter than you? What''s his name? Anyways, as far as I know, you don''t really like getting into fights so I want to know why you acted to impulsive."


    "rk." Keith said and went silent. He knew that he couldn''t tell her the true answer. One of the reasons he wanted to fight him was because he wanted to see the difference between them. But that changed the moment rk went for the first punch.


    Everything happened almost instantly and before Keith even knew it, rk was lying on the ground. Even though he won, he knew that if the guy was careful and fought the way he fought usually, then he would easily win.


    ''rk is a monster even though he got an indirect nerf. If I wish to beat him, I''ll have to take full leverage of Vincent''s monthly taxes.'' he thought but he gave Amelia a sheepish smile.


    "I kinda got a bit possessive. Call it an instinct but I could tell that he wanted to get close to ra, like establish some kind of connection. Though I don''t understand what he''d aplish by annoying her." he said.


    Although he said this, his thoughts were different.


    ''That''s his go to method though. He''ll either annoy or piss them off and then using this as a way tomunicate, he somehow manages to make them have a soft spot for him. I know all his tricks so there was no way I''d let him fight ra.''


    Amelia on the other hand, smirked, "Good job then. At least you won, but I don''t understand why you went so... hard against thest team. Like, you probably won''t be able to walk for at least a week."


    Keith nodded even though he knew that he''ll take less time than what she thought, "Yeah, I''m sorry for getting impulsive."


    "Hey, it''s fine. We''ll cover for you. These guys told us that they won''t let you rest back at camp a few minutes ago, so you''ll have no choice but toe here. But that aside, Brandon said that there''s no need for you to do any physical work. All we need is your creativity, like the log thing you did today." Amelia said as she looked around.


    "Hmm." Keith thought for a second, "Something like that is not reallymon. Those kind of ideas hit at random times, so I can''t really guarantee anything."


    "That''s fine. Don''t worry about it. Anyways, we''ll only have to wait for a little bit more before we go back to our camp so hang in there."


    Keith nodded and silently closed his eyes, opened his system screen to collect his monthly tax from Vincent.


    ''I already have regeneration so I guess I''ll take Battle Instinct this time.'' he thought and immediately made a n, ''Time to give him a slight push.''


    Keith didn''t have to pick the same thing again and again to upgrade it. Once he picked a skill, it''ll keep increasing based on his system user''s progress. In Vincent''s case, if he upgraded his Battle Instinct to SSS grade in the future, Keith wouldn''t have to take it as tax as his own Battle Instinct would be SSS grade just like Vincent''s.


    He picked Battle Instinct and felt his divine and mental energy increase. He then automated most of the upgrades so that they could be bought using money. Once that was done, he gave out a quest.


    [Quest: Important Upgrades]


    Find more chapters on empire


    Upgrade Battle God''s Regeneration.


    Rewards: For every 3 upgrades, you receive a free upgrade of any skill.


    Punishment for Failure: None


    Vincent was resting in his room when he saw the quest pop up. He immediately opened up his system screen and saw a change. There was a price tag for every upgrade just like how it was for his physique grade two months ago.


    [System: Host is currently in Morose Kingdom. Default currency set to Moros.]


    Currently, his battle god''s regeneration was at E grade. He used his fingers to count and muttered, "SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D. In total, there''s seven and to upgrade to D grade, it''s 8 Moros. Back then I had to pay 4 Zen but since each Zen is the same as 2 Moros, it looks like the cost is same as the physique grades."


    "I did splurge a little bit, but I still have more than 130,000 left. Maybe I can upgrade a few others too." he said as he began to invest all of his money into his skills.

 Chapter 89 Striking A Deal With The Healer

    The money that was in front of Vincent, disappeared steadily as he upgraded three of his skills.


    In an instant, 131,064 Moros disappeared.


    The money required for each upgrade was multiplied by 4, with Grade F to E being 1 Zen and E to D being 4 Zen. When converted to Moro, this was multiplied by two.


    From E to S, he would need 4+16+64+256+1024+4096+16384. Which summed up to 21,884. When converted to Moro, it was 43,688 and for three skills, it was 131,064.


    But even though the money vanished, Vincent didn''t see any change on the system screen.


    "Hey, system... did you just... scam me?" he asked, his voice almost a whisper due to his disbelief.


    Keith on the other hand, stared at his system screen, speechless and lost on how to handle the situation. He could indeed help him with the upgrades, but it consumed his mental energy. He didn''t have enough to help Vincent to upgrade three of his skills to SSS grade in just a second.


    With a sigh, he used some of his mental energy to give Vincent one upgrade to his Battle God''s Regeneration and sent a message.


    [System Overload. The activation of all upgrades will take time and until then, no more upgrades will be avable.]


    Seeing this, Vincent calmed down and went back to dreaming about beautiful girls. The system administrator could stop him from visiting brothels, but he couldn''t stop him from imagining things.


    The moment Vincent''s Battle God''s Regeneration went up from E grade to D grade, Keith''s regeneration also improved. He then decided to let go of his worries and take a nap. A few hourster, he was woken up by Amelia.


    "Time to go?" he asked and she nodded, "Yeah. Do you need help with walking?"


    "Girl, I can''t even stand up on my own... like... how do I exin?"


    Amelia sighed and nodded, "It''s fine, I understand." she said and carried him up like a princess.


    She then looked at him and frowned, "What? Stop looking at me like that."


    "Nah, I just realised that you''re pretty strong. I thought you were mentally like a brother to me but now..."


    "One more word and I''ll drop you right here." she red at him and Keith shut up, not having any intention to have himself dropped back to the ground.


    Once they got back to the group, ra brought a guy with her to Keith, "I found this person and has an ability to help with recovery."


    "Yeah she went around asking every damn team." Amelia said and nodded but Keith shook his head, not wanting to get back to normal at all.


    "No no, what are you guys thinking? I mean, I appreciate it ra, I really do. But think about it like this. I''m one of the weakest in the team and if I''m injured, there will be a reason for you guys to reduce the number of fighters when there''s anotherbat event like today.


    This way, you won''t have to worry about losing since most of our team other than me, is pretty strong themselves." he said.


    ra gave him a disapproving look, but didn''t express it through words. On the other hand Brandon nodded, agreeing with him.


    "He''s right. If he participates in a fight, he''ll only drag us back."


    Amelia and ra stared daggers at him.


    Seeing their reaction, he shrugged and looked away but everyone in the team failed to notice Caleb walking towards the forest. By the time they did, it was toote.


    He bashed his head against a tree with all the strength he could muster and passed out in an instant.


    "What the hell?!" Laura shouted before rushing over to him.


    Nathan on the other hand looked at Keith, "He basically followed your example...." he said and sighed, "What am I even supposed to do with him.. and you."


    He stared at Keith, "Please don''t say things like that in front of Caleb again. He cares about the team too much and has very low confidence."


    "Yeah, I didn''t expect that. I''ll keep that in mind."


    Nathan nodded and turned to look at Laura who was carrying Caleb back to the team.


    "What do we do now?" she asked as she looked at the others.


    Brandon rubbed his chin, "He should have broken his back or something. Once he wakes up, he''ll have to get involved in the events anyways." he said and after seeing everyone''s pissed off expressions, he coughed slightly and added, "But I''ll lecture him to not do this again. This is not good for the team."


    The healer on the other hand, couldn''t help chuckling, "You guys are a fun team. Everyone in my team is so damn serious that even breathing around them feels hard. Yikes." Explore more stories at empire


    Keith looked at him, "Well, a team is still a team. By the way, if you need anything, don''t hesitate toe to us. We can trade fish meat with you, some fresh water and maybe some other things as soon as we get our hands on them."


    The healer nodded, "That''d be great actually. We''re were really struggling for food for the past three days and today was a godsend. We ate until out stomachs were full but we do need a stable source of food and we don''t mind trading for it. My team has medical experts so if you need anything, do tell me."


    Hearing this, Keith grinned, "I need something that can paralyze animals. Even the big ones. Then maybe something like tranquilizers, preservatives and oh yeah, pain killers."


    The healer heard his needs and thought for a second before nodding, "We do have ingredients to make preservatives right now, but we''ll need more time for the the others. Salt is like the best preservative option, so the one we''ll be able to make is like a paste. It''ll keep the food fresh for a maximum of two days."


    "Only two days huh..." Keith said and nodded, "Yeah I guess it''ll be fine. Or maybe not, let me think about it tonight and I''ll tell you tomorrow if I need it or not."

 Chapter 90 Calebs Hidden Potential

    Two hourster, in the camp.


    The sky was dark, but the night was still young. Laura had caught them a fish and everyone was done with their dinners. Though they all wanted to sing and dance, they listened to Keith''s advice and went to bed early.


    As silence settled in the camp, Keith slowly opened his eyes and began to expend his mental energy to upgrade Vincent''s Battle God''s Regeneration from D to B. He had slightly more energy left, but he felt a splitting headache, so he decided to stop.


    With a frown on his face, he opened up his system screen and checked his own information.


    Age = 22 years old


    Birthday= February 23rd 4642


    Current Year = 4664


    Start of god of system = 4664


    Start of Novel = 4660


    Awakened Abilities:


    Danger Sense


    Libido and Sensitivity control


    Fire Creation and Maniption


    Special Skills:


    Regeneration: Grade B


    Improves stamina recovery and boosts the rate of regeneration of wounds.


    Battle Instinct: Grade D


    The more you fight, the more you learn from the fight. This knowledge will be permanent and cannot be erased under normal circumstances.


    ''Grade B is good. Unfortunately, it doesn''t really improve the regeneration of mental energy.'' he thought and closed his eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep.


    He woke up earlier than everyone the next day, and gently put ra''s arms away before slipping away from her hug. He walked out, and saw that the sky was still dark.


    ''I should have bought a pocket watch....'' he thought as he looked up at the sky and estimated the time based on the moon''s cement.


    ''Slightly over midnight... maybe one or two AM.''


    He grabbed some logs and tossed them into the fire pits that still had some red hot coal in it. After flipping the fish meat, he went ahead and sat on a tree stump before closing his eyes.


    His mental energy was quickly expended, upgrading Regeneration from Grade B to A. He could push it to S grade, but he didn''t have any interest in getting a splitting head ache once again.


    He twisted his torso and winced, ''It still hurts, but it''s way better. I''ll be able to fully recover by the end of tomorrow, or if I upgrade the regeneration skill even more, it could be faster.''


    With a sigh, he grabbed a decently thick stick and used his dagger to cut out bits and pieces from it. As he kept his hands busy, he thought about Timmy. Time slowly passed and weird looking wooden spoons had started to stack up beside him.


    Once he ran out of wood to work with, he opened up his system screen and sent out a quest to Vincent.


    [Chain Quest: Great Thief in the Making]


    Visit the ck Market and talk to the man named Red Mole.


    Reward: Quest Advancement


    Punishment for Failure: Potential loss of 100,000 Moro.


    [System Note: Feel Free to buy a ve if you wish to.]


    [System Administrator: If you buy a sex ve, I''ll reduce your penis size.]


    After sending the quest he focused on creating his own system, but unlike yesterday, he went with a different approach.


    There were no system screens this time. Instead, it was transparent, untouchable and was unable to be sensed. It was like an invisible seed, or in other words, it worked like an untraceable virus in aputer.


    Only Keith, the creator of this object, was able to see how it looked.


    He stared at the extremely small blue dot that was smaller than a particle of dust and sent it flying towards the tent where Brandon, Nathan and Caleb were sleeping in. It glided inside the tent and slowly entered Brandon''s body.


    Two secondster, Keith used a bit more of his divine energy to create something akin to a server that connected all the ''dots'' that he had created a few seconds ago.


    Once that was done, he added in a few mentalmands and a system screen popped out in front of Keith.


    [User Status]


    Name: Brandon


    Physique: Grade A


    Gic Physique Type: Instantaneous Burst


    Awakening Status: Awakened


    Awakened Ability: Stone skin


    Stone Skin: Forms ayer of stone over the body, providing great physical defence.


    This system screen was designed in such a way that Brandon wouldn''t be able to see this until Keith wanted him to.


    ''Now all I need to do is add in some spy elements like the video and text format stuff that I''m able to do with Vincent.'' he thought and began to work on it. It wasn''t as hard as actual programming as he simply had to think about something and how it worked. As long as he had enough divine energy, then whatever he nned, would be possible.


    Though, all the tweaking was only limited to systems.


    He tried for a few minutes and found out that it wasn''t possible to recreate a video style format. Text was possible, so he wasn''t too bummed about the results. Now that he was done, he was ready to test the one thing that he was most excited about.


    ''My divine energy is drained when I use the gacha wheel, but I don''t feel any drain when I give the systems to others.'' he thought and with a snap of his fingers, two more system seeds were created.


    He sent these into Caleb and Nathan before mentally sending out amand to see their stats.


    Instantly, two system screens popped up.


    [User Status]


    Name: Nathan Discover stories with empire


    Physique: Grade D


    Gic Physique Type: Strongman


    Awakening Status: Awakened


    Awakened Ability: Holy Pdin


    Holy Pdin: Summons a set of Armor, shield and a sword. When equipped, physical strength, defence, agility, stamina and overall body recovery is boosted.


    [User Status]


    Name: Caleb


    Physique: Grade E


    Gic Physique Type: Instantaneous Burst


    Awakening Status: Awakened


    Awakened Ability: Wind Sovereign


    Wind Sovereign: Ability to create winds across a wide region, including the intensity and direction of natural winds. (Mental Suppression = Diminishes the potential power of the ability due to theck of mental energy output.)

 Chapter 91 The Person Keith Wished He Was

    Keith was pretty shocked when he saw Caleb''s awakened ability.


    ''To think that it was so damn good.'' he thought as he stared at his screen, making Caleb one of his most important targets to copy awakened ability from. He currently faced the problem of having too much to eat but with the limitation of stomach space.


    Read new adventures at empire


    He summoned his gacha wheel and saw everything greyed out.


    ''There''s no need to worry too much. Once I recover my divine energy, I''ll pick someone based on my current needs.''


    He then sent the system seeds to the others nearby, not leaving a single person behind. Once done, he went back to his bed and lied down beside ra.


    Vincent''s Battle God Regeneration was pushed up from A to S grade instantly and he felt a stinging pain in his head once again. He then closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep, which happened pretty easily thanks to hisck of mental energy.


    By the time Keith woke up again, it was sunny outside. He groggily walked out and instantly smelled the cooking fish.


    "We''ll have to trade for some rice, flour or even berries. We can''t just depend on fish." he said as he walked to the fire pit, wincing slightly as the pain in his body was still present.


    Amelia widened her eyes and nced behind him repeatedly, which prompted Keith to turn around, only to see the masked instructor standing silently as she stared at him.


    Keith instantly fell to the ground, "O o my whole body hurtsss! Aaaaoulouloulou!"


    "Pft-"


    *cough!*


    ra sprayed the food that was in her mouth while Brandon''sugh was brutally destroyed by the fish meat which got stuck in his throat before shooting out of his nostrils.


    The instructor shook her head, "Don''t worry. Your name has been registered in the injured people list and based on the words given by the person who spectated your fights, you''ve been given a resting period of three days. Even if you recover earlier than that, you''re free to stay back at the camp."


    "Oh." Keith said and got back up, this time wincing genuinely, "That''s great, but I heard that we''re not allowed to stay back at camps no matter what."


    "Wrong information. You''re free to do what you want. You can either stay here ore to the beach and rest there. But do keep in mind, if you stay back here, you will have no choice but to wait until evening to meet your teammates." she said and Keith nodded.


    "Understood. By the way, umm can I know the schedule? Like when the recreational events will take ce and also about the stuff that we''re expected to do."


    Instructor Sera nodded, "The first one will take ce two dayster, on thest day of your resting period. It''ll continue for three days and the stuff that you''re supposed to do... anything works.


    As long as it has some kind of artistic value, you''ll be allowed to do it. But keep in mind that the dance, music, painting, drawing and things like that are mainstream. There''s other unique art forms too, but based on how impressive you are, the better scores you''ll get."


    Hearing this, Keith nced at Amelia and shifted his attention back to instructor Sera, "Um... is there a way I can acquire a grand piano? I hope to practice before I perform."


    "You can rent it from the trade market." she said and looked at the others, "You guys have two more hours of free time before I take you to the beach, so please keep that in mind."


    Everyone nodded and went back to eating but Keith decided to wait for a little while as he had urgent things to do.


    He looked at the others and began, "Guys, let''s catch as many fishes as possible and trade them all for a huge amount of salt. I also request for a grand piano to be rented for my practice."


    Thest sentence was directed towards Brandon as he was officially the team leader.


    Hearing this, Brandon nodded, "Anything to push our team up. You said that you wanted to get our church to the top two right? Do you have any ns?"


    "Hmm... I''ll have to think about it for a bit. I''ll give you my ideas by evening." Keith responded as he pointed toward the basket that was halfway filled with berries.


    "You guys should eat those if you wish to work efficiently. It''s way better than meat when ites to giving you energy."


    The others nodded and grabbed a handful of berries before stuffing themselves. Once everyone was done eating, they hurried over to the river.


    Laura caught one fish every minute and tossed it over to Brandon and Nathan to carry back to the camp. Everyone else felt like they weren''t even needed there.


    After about half an hour, everyone returned back to the camp and therge pile of humongous fish was waiting for them.


    "Twenty eight fishes." Brandon said as he looked at the pile, "This really is a lot of fish and I do hope that we''ll be able to get something valuable out of this."


    Everyone nodded while Keith took a step forward, "Guys, I hope you do remember rk. The guy who tried to cause trouble."


    "Of course." Laura said, frowning and everyone else nodded.


    "Yeah, I want you guys to be wary of everything he does." he said, not mentioning Timmy as he knew that Timmy wasn''t someone who''d try to cause trouble openly. There was a chance of him doing underhanded things, but that would only happen if he considered their group a threat.


    Unfortunately, rk was a different breed altogether. He was someone who''d do whatever he wanted to as long as the consequences weren''t too dire.


    After Keith gave out his instructions, he went ahead and sat down on a tree stump, sighing as he realised a major change in his perspective of both himself and rk.


    ''Simr to my in almost every aspect my ass... he''s basically who I wished to be but will never be. But that''s not necessarily a bad thing.''

 Chapter 92 Timmys Trade Offer Rejected

    rk was the exact same copy of Keith''s "ideal" persona, someone who he hoped he could be but was unable to. He hadn''t realised it for a long time and it was only after directly meeting him, did he see the differences.


    Act brave to go around and cause trouble? That just wasn''t Keith''s preferred way of doing things. He''d rather pull strings from the shadows instead of putting himself in danger.


    But rk wasn''t like this. He was calcting and maniptive, but that was where it stopped. He preferred to be the center of all action as he was strong and didn''t care too much about the negative oues.


    Just like Keith, he was a guy with regr IQ and it was only now that Keith realised how their way of thinking was different.


    Keith didn''t stay back in the camp and instead, grabbed two of the dead fishes'' tails before leaning in on ra as he rested his chin on her shoulder. His arms weren''t too damaged, but since his torso and in other words, abdominal area was severely beaten up, it made it hard for him to lift heavy things.


    With each fish weighing almost 30 kilograms, there was no way he could even lift one, let alone two. Everyone except Brandon and Nathan grabbed onto two fishes and leaned against each other to maintain physical contact. Stay connected through empire


    Brandon and Nathan on the other hand, had arge cloth bag hanging over their shoulders, each one of them carrying 9 fishes each.


    Seeing this group, instructor Sera shook her head and smiled behind her mask before cing her hand on Laura''s shoulder as she was the one who was at the front. A secondter, they were all standing on the beach, one of the earliest groups to arrive.


    Brandon and Nathan took two more fishes from Caleb and Keith before moving onto the trade market. Keith had already visited this ce so he asked for an empty table, which was free of cost as long as he returned it back.


    He ced multiple tables beside each other and traded one fish to rent 13rge wooden boxes, a lot of ice and also salt. Nathan broke the ice into smaller chunks while the others threw in the rock salt crystals into the ice before mixing it all.


    This was to make sure that the temperature didn''t go up too fast. With twelve boxes containing two fishes and thest box having three, Keith took up the responsibility of taking care of all the trades for the day.


    It was still early in the morning, so there weren''t too many customers. Keith took this as an advantage and walked around socialising, doing that job that Amelia had done the previous day.


    While he was busy talking to people, he still kept an eye on his stall just in case someone tried to steal things. Luckily, no one caused any trouble.


    A few hourster, he felt his mental energy recover back to full, so he used it to boost Battle God''s Regeneration once again, bringing it to SS grade. This time, the headache wasn''t too severe, but he still felt a slight pulsation that was ufortable.


    By the time everyone were done with their chores, Keith was back at his stall, diligently cutting up the fish before tossing it back into the box of Ice and salt.


    He only did it with one box of fish, which was the one with three fishes while he let the others be the way they were. He didn''t have to wait for long as a lot of people began setting up stalls alongside him.


    Seeing this, Keith got Brandon to help him move the tables in such a way that it formed a U shape. Two tables were used as the main counter while there were four tables on each side. The rest of the tables were given back to the staff while the extra boxes that didn''t have space on the tables, were ced on the sand.


    Wood was a decent instor, so Kieth wasn''t too worried about the ice melting too much in the next few hours.


    Behind the stall, his team was busy preparing fish soup using leftover bones from the three fishes that Keith had cut up. Beside the pot of soup, there was another pot that had rice cooking in it.


    Surprisingly, the first customer was Timmy. He walked over and looked at all the boxes before giving Keith is attention.


    "I heard that you were selling fish." hemented as he ced his hand on the table.


    Keith nodded, giving him an amicable smile, "Yes, do you have anything you wish to trade for it?"


    "Hmm... I do have a few things." he said softly as he thought about the things he had, "Most of the valuable things are back at camp, but I did bring a bunch of fruits."


    He then ced two different fruits in front of Keith, one was simr to an apple, being bright red in color but it was almost perfectly round.


    "We don''t really know the name of this fruit, but the texture is simr to a pear and it is slightly sour. Me and my people have tasted and eaten them for the past few days. I assure you that there are no problems with this fruit."


    Next, he pointed at a bright yellow branch like thing, a well known root called Yakka. Keith recognised this thanks to his experience as a reader. It was basically just Cassava or as few others in his old life used to call it, tapioca.


    Though, there was a slight difference. Yakka would always be slightly bitter if it was boiled directly and if it was dried and pound into a powder before cooking, then the bitterness would be almost nonexistent.


    "Well, you know this one." Timmy said and proposed a deal, "One kilo for one kilo."


    Keith immediately shook his head, "I apologise, but that''s not gonna happen. The best I can do is one kilo of fish for three kilos of any of these. If you have Yakka flour, then I can trade one kilo of fish for two."


    [A/N: Extra chaptersing soon. If I don''t pass out while writing at least. Anyways, since we reached 26 Golden tickets, you guys will be receiving 2 extra chapters.]

 Chapter 93 A Successful Day of Trading (Extra Chapter)

    Timmy thought for a while before nodding, "Fine, but let''s make a deal. You sell this fish only to me and I''ll give you five kilograms of any of these for one kilogram of fish."


    "Not gonna happen. I don''t really need so much fruit of yakka, so it''s basically a loss for me. We can just proceed with the trade based on my terms or maybe if you have a better deal, I''ll consider it."


    Seeing Keith reject his offer once again, Timmy couldn''t help but frown. He reconsidered the prices and made another offer, this time taking out a small transparent vial that was filled with transparent liquid.


    Keith looked at it, but he couldn''t really guess what it was as there were multiple liquids that were transparent.


    "Here, this vial contains ten millilitres of a very potent aphrodisiac. It''s very valuable, so I''ll give this to you for at least three whole fishes." Timmy said, smirking as he knew that there was no way Keith would reject something so tempting.


    "I''m sure you''d want to get inside Amelia''s pants."


    "...." Keith silently stared at him and then frowned as he tried to exin the situation to Timmy, "Listen, this could be very valuable if I was back in the city but right now, we''re in a partial survival situation. I have no use for an aphrodisiac sir so in my eyes, it''spletely worthless.


    Look here, what I need right now is basically food, spices, medicines and things like that. I wouldn''t mind receiving certainbor intensive work or anything special that your team can provide. Oh and I have no interest in any kind of sexual services."


    At this point, Amelia who was chatting with the others while cooking, walked over to the counter and looked at Timmy, "What do you want? Are you trying to scam him with your usual tricks?"


    Timmy scoffed, "I wish. This guy is very stubborn, let me tell you that."


    He then clicked his tongue and nodded, "Fine, I''ll bring you a sack of yakkas and the fruits each. One sack will weigh 30 kilograms, so I hope that I can get a total of 20 kilograms of fish."


    "Sure." Keith said, closing the deal, "Feel free to bring your things while I measure some fish for you."


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    It took him a while to settle the trade but once he was done, he began to receive quite a few customers. In just two hours, he received 21 customers and among them, 8 of them got took some fish for free.


    Originally, the free time was supposed to be one hour, but after a lot of teams requested for an extension, the higher officials agreed to it and increased the one hour free time to two.


    Keith just gave it to their teams when they said that they were desperate for food and to confirm if they were lying or not, he hired one of the teams from medicine church to cross check as the entire team consisted of medical professionals.


    He simply offered them 1kg of fish each and they readily agreed to work for him.


    The reason for his charity was simple, it was to form connections and even though he gave out food for free, there was a condition attached. They would only get the free meat once and after that, unless they were ready to trade something, they wouldn''t receive anything.


    During the two hours of free time, his team mates weren''t sitting idle. Brandon rented arge stone mortar and used his fists covered with stone to pound the Yakkas to a slightly wet but powdery texture.


    Yakkas did not have too much water content inside them. Brandon did not pound every single Yakka root and listened to Keith''s advice to only do 3 kilograms.


    His team then rented a fewrge copper trays and spread the powdery yakka paste onto them so that the sun could help them dry out. To amodate these trays, they had to move the wooden boxes to the ground.


    By the time the free time ran out, Keith had received various promises and favours while also managing to form multiple alliances with quite a lot of teams.


    Satisfied with the oue, went to look at the things he had managed to hoard thanks to the trades.


    First was the 30 kilo of fruits and 30 kilos of yakka root that was given to him by Timmy. Then there was the healer''s team whom he had met the previous day. They brought him a decent sized bucket of a dark greenish paste that smelled slightly minty and based on their words, applying it on the surface of the body helped with muscle recovery and also open wounds.


    Apart from that, there were things like bows, multiple arrows, eggs, mushrooms, coconuts, fruits, berries and one team traded deer meat too. He also managed to acquire arge y pot and a small bowl filled with hardened animal fat.


    He still had almost 18 fishes left, and since the ice had barely melted, he thought of letting them stay where they were and continue selling them tomorrow, but then he remembered that he needed to rent a grand piano.


    With a sigh, he walked over to the church staff who were in charge of the trade market and requested for one.


    Luckily, just renting a piano for a week wasn''t too pricey and "only" required 210 kilos of fish meat, which was equivalent to almost 7 fishes. Keith traded all of his 18 fishes and in return, he was allowed to keep the grand piano for a week and also received slightly more than 115 kilos of salt.


    The staff dragged 6 sacks filled with salt and ced them beside his stall which was technically sold out now. Keith waited until evening before returning all the tables and trays.


    All the traded items were neatly packed by the time his team walked back to him.


    "Let''s go back to the camp for now and then I''ll show you guys everything I managed to get."

 Chapter 94 The Grand Piano

    Once he was back at camp, he showed them all the things he managed to get during the day. The piano was ced right beside the official instructors'' tent, which was used by Edward and Seraphelle.


    For dinner, he didn''t get anyone to make anything and instead just settled for some fruits, berries and the deer meat that he had. Everyone appreciated the food thanks to the change after almost 5 days.


    As he went to bed, he used the replenished mental energy to boost Vincent''s skills once again. The next morning, he decided to stay back and sent the others away with just three fishes.


    Once they were gone, he was left alone with Edward and Seraphelle who sat on the ground, chatting away as they didn''t really have much work to do. He walked over to the grand piano and yed around with it, trying to get a feel for it as he knew that grand pianos were way differentpared to the regr electric piano that he used to y.


    The grand piano followed a simr principle to the guitar, using strings to produce sounds. It was just that the entire mechanism was extremelyplicate for it''s time, having multiple hammer and gear like things to make sure that the piano worked as intended.


    Thanks to this, the force needed to press the keys was higher than what he normally used for electric keyboards and on top of that, it also had three pedals that allowed him to control the sounds even further.


    At first, he sounded horrible but since he knew the fundamentals, he improved at a tremendous pace until he hit the peak of his learning curve.


    "There''s so much more I could do... the amount of control over the sounds with a grand piano is incredible and way better than a regr piano, but that will probably take me months and even years." he muttered, knowing that he never was a world ss piano yer.


    He only used to do it as a hobby and he had no ns on spending most of his time on the grand piano.


    ''Well, this much is enough for now and maybe by night, I''ll be able to get used to all the differences.'' he thought as he went back to practicing.


    Time quickly passed by and he entered the perfect flow state multiple times, going in and out of this state randomly. Some times, he was too distracted by the sounds of nature and some times he was so engrossed in the grand piano that everything else seemed to have stopped existing in his mind.


    He had a few pieces learnt by heart, and he decided to practice Mozart''s Concerto No.21 which he really liked. Moonlight Sonata was a top ssic, but he felt like going for something else.


    By the time the sun had set, Keith had almostpletely done with his practice. He got up from the makeshift chair he had made by cing a thick tree trunk on the ground.


    He could have moved the piano, but it was way easier to move a cut up logpared to therge piano.


    "Oof, my ass hurts like crazy from sitting down for so long." he muttered as he patted his behind before looking at Edward and Seraphelle who already had their eyes on him.


    "It''s almost night time. When are those guys going toe back?" he asked as he walked around.


    Edward shrugged, "I don''t know, but I''m sure they''ll be here soon. Though I must tell you, you''ve managed to impress this countess." he said as he nced at Seraphelle who nodded in response.


    "Indeed. You''re very good with the piano and when I listened to you getting better and better, it felt like you had some kind of experience with using this instrument. It''s like you abandoned it and came back after getting rusty."


    Keith gave her a stiff smile as her analysis was on the mark, "Maybe I did try it out in the past." he said and didn''t bother exining.


    Seraphelle gave him a slight nod, "Anyways, that musical piece of yours is absolutely phenomenal. It made me feel goosebumps everywhere."


    "She literally cried, Keith. After you got the music to flow better, there was nothing stopping her tears." Edwardmented, only to get have Seraphelle re at him.


    With a slight cough, she turned to look at Keith, "Don''t bother him, his taste in music is absolute garbage. Also, yes I did shed tears but I want you to know that not everyone perceives music the same way. Some may cry, and some may feel various other emotions. There will also be some who will not be able to feel anything from your music, but don''t let that stop you."


    Keith silently nodded. He never nned on following the path of music professionally, at least not in this world.


    "Why don''t-"


    Just as Seraphelle began to speak once again, their teammates teleported back to the camp.


    "- you y a different piece for me?"


    "y a what? Keith already learnt how to y that darn thing?" Amelia eximed, shocked beyond her wildest dreams as her gaze switched between Keith and Seraphelle.


    Most of the people in their team wasn''t familiar with the Piano but since Amelia was a former noble, he had taken sses to learn how to y the instrument. Due to this, she knew how hard it was to learn the grand piano.


    Keith looked at them and didn''t say much. Instead his gaze was locked onto Brandon who had arge bag on his back. Explore more at empire


    "What did you manage to get through trades today?"


    Seeing him ignore her, Amelia flew into a fit, "Oi bastard, did you just ignore me? Just what in the hell is your problem."


    "Hey, chill. I was just interested in what we got today and as for your question, the actual answer is no. I didn''t learn the Piano in just a day. I yed around with a piano back when I was in college and all I did was brush up and shake off the rustiness." he said and nced at everyone in the group.


    With a smile, he spoke, "If you want, I can y something for you guys."

 Chapter 95 Clarks Attempt at Scamming

    [A/N: Gonna keep this short. If I try to describe the whole piece, it''ll probably take up around 1 to 2 chapters.]


    After ying around with Amelia for a while, annoying her by quite a bit, Keith sat down on the log and rested his hands on the piano before closing his eyes. Then, he waited for a few seconds before he started to y the Concerto no.21.


    He didn''t y the entire piece and ended the whole thing in just eight minutes before getting up from his seat. He looked at others who were staring at him and said, "That''s it for now. I don''t want to y this for thirty whole minutes, not when I''m hungry."


    Just like Seraphelle had said, not everyone had the same tastes and understanding of music. Everyone''s perception and intake of music was different had a spectrum of various levels. A great example was his team itself as it was split into three groups at the moment.


    ra, Caleb and Nathan had tears on their faces. Amelia looked absolutely oblivious to the effects of Concerto No.21 but was impressed by his music skills while Brandon and Laura were just smiling as the music had made them feel happier.


    "No questions until we eat." Keith announced the moment he saw Amelia open her mouth, which prompted her to close her mouth immediately.


    ra on the other hand, still couldn''t help but ask out loud. She wiped away the tears, "That... is very impressive. I''ve never attended any Orchestra but this... it felt like it touched my soul. How did you do it? I mean... you must be very talented to be able to attain this level of skill right?"


    Keith smiled at her, but it was a stiff smile. He had tried to make music his main profession in his past life, but reality hit hard. Thepetition was extremely severe and even though he could y the piano extremely well, it was nothingpared to the others who had the same dreams as him. Instead of pushing forward, he simply decided to make music a hobby and got back to focusing on his studies.


    Compared to those monsters, he knew that his so-called talent was just a culmination of all his hard work up until now, one of the many fruits of his past life.


    He shook his head, "Compared to the actual talents, I am nothing. This piece... it took me almost two years topose." he said shamelessly, but this was the only way as he knew that Concerto No.21 was never a thing in this world. If he went around saying that he learnt from Mozart, then the people would give him weird looks.


    If there was one piece from his past life, which managed to get into this world, then that would be the great ssic, the moonlight sonata.


    ''Red Mist probably never had any knowledge about most of the ssics so there''s a high chance that she simply picked the moonlight sonata since it''s so famous.'' he thought, but Amelia walked towards him, huffing in anger.


    "Hey! You said no questions but you still answer ra. This is discrimination!"


    Keith wanted to say that ra was a special case, but didn''t as no one other than Amelia, him and ra knew of the whole picture. It was a checkmate from Amelia, so he sighed, "You still got your answer didn''t you? I''m sure you had the same question."


    "Well... that''s true, but... yeah, it''s still discrimination."


    Hearing this, Keith smirked, "Of course, I''m just paying you back for all the bullying you did when I was new to the job. ra was such an angel to me back then."


    "I... you... what? I bullied you? You''re not easy to bully!!!" She eximed almost on the verge of tears due to feeling frustrated from his antics, "I mean, I know that I wasn''t such a great friend back then and I did try to cause trouble but you always pped me back in your own way, you.... you lewd dog!"


    Hearing her talk about their past in such a way did make him feel slightly guilty. He gave her an apologetic smile and patted her head, only to realise that he was led on by her. He took his hand away and frowned, "You were the one who started everything and all I did was... actually, never mind. I''m hungry."


    He then walked over to ra dramatically, "Oh my lovely senior, please take me away from this witch.", elicitingughter from the others.


    ra chuckled and walked over to the firece to start the fire while the others followed. Keith ced his arm around Amelia shoulder and smirked as he whispered, "Bro, listen. You totally deserved it all but! I feel like that''s what makes our friendship so unique. Don''t you think so too?"


    "...." Amelia stayed silent as she frowned, "Sure, but you should stop calling me your bro. It makes me feel weird and not in a good way."


    "Okay." Keith nodded, "Let''s go eat... and also, tell me about today. Did anyone notable make contact with our team?"


    "Well... there''s my brother. We fought them and lost miserably. Brandon won against two of his opponents but he was way too tired by the time he fought the third guy. ra won against one and gave up once she saw my brother walk into the ring. As for me..." she said and blushed slightly from shame, "I took ra''s ce and lost without being able to do a thing. My brother isn''t an awakened but he''s a very strong knight. Maybe in two or three years, he''ll be able to receive the title of a royal knight too."


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    She then went on about various teams that were extremely friendly towards them, but then her expression turned serious.


    "Lastly... that rk guy came to us for a trade. He asked for two entire fishes and told us that he''ll pay us with a lot of weapons and ropes." she said and frowned, "Well, I don''t really like him so I told him to fuck off."


    "Hahahahaha! Great job, he''s a great scammer so there''s a high chance of him just ignoring us the next day if that happened. There are no rules that punish scammers."


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