2 Thanks For The Present

"Wish I had my boosters," Verhund muttered something random while entering a small pedestrian street cramped between a lot of buildings, the man with a scimitar right behind, breathing fire on his tail.

He didn't have to run much to approach a house as high as three people. With a jump, Verhund went for a wall run, stepping towards the wall at knee height at in mid-air, he managed to give three steps before pushing himself towards the opposite brick building, always facing towards his immediate destination.

He jumped towards the roof of the five meters tall house soon after he touched the second wall, folding his arms and legs towards his chest to make a ball as he spun, he then stretched his legs just high enough to make the rest of the way to the rooftop, his free hand was used to complete the vault with a single roll after his sides touched higher ground.

The scimitar man, however, didn't have the same parkour skills. He had to stop in front of the house and use the window sill and the door garrison as foot and handholds respectively in order to climb up. This took considerable time and gave Verhund the chance to have a better look at his pursuer.

The man seemed to be about his own age range, his commonly weird getup unchanged since the last time, though now Verhund could spot a short sword hanging at waist level from his back. His scowl was a telling of his frustration towards the coming chase, but a certain metaphorical fire still flared in his eyes.

Verhund turned to run as his opponent quickly reached the edge of the roof, already pushing himself up.

He was starting to understand the meaning behind the constructions in this city now.

As the origins of people were pretty diverse, they all had their own way of bringing their culture into whatever new land they came to, a house or building would be the most showoff way of doing this, and of course, the new neighbors wouldn't want to fall behind.

The end result was an unintentional, artificial maze in between every building. It somehow reminded Verhund of a midget version of the capital of a certain robot-fanatic Asian nation, every premise was connected and reachable in weird ways that felt somewhat intentional due to their sheer quantity.

The present would be a great example of this; to his left, Verhund could spot several timber-frames that could take him three stories higher; to his front, there was another five meters high brick wall that could be easily hopped over with a pop vault; and to his right, there was a chimney that could aid him in jumping up to a balcony in order to proceed further and higher; all of this right at the start.

He chose to keep on forwards in order to have more time to plan around.

Running towards his target, he jumped and propped the heel of his foot onto the wall at waist level, then he pushed upwards while sending the upper-half of his body towards the wall and used his free hand to grab the ledge, swiftly using what was left of his momentum to climb further and send the elbow of his other arm to get a stronger grip, he finished the climb with a roll and stood up.

His tail was already hopping up - he also seemed able to jump slightly higher than normal people - but he still had to grab onto the gaps between the bricks to finish the climb.

And Verhund was already jogging over and kong vaulting through a chimney, falling three meters and onto another house, he rolled once again, this time to disperse the impact of the fall that would have otherwise put a strain on his legs in the long run.

He ran forward and wall ran into an open window on the other side of a small road bellow, invading the peaceful dwelling and leaving through another room to go back to the streets.

It was then that a chill ran through his spine, through his danger sense, Verhund noticed that his opponent also did a wall run, just not proper enough to climb the window. Instead, he fell into the passage below and spotted Verhund once he descended the rooftops.

The skill was nothing much, but his body was clearly trying to imitate a professional. Though most of his movements were awkward, with his timing a bit off and the angle of his run too steep, but the height of the step was on point.

'Learning free-running by chasing after a Rando for a little while, I'm starting to get envious.'

Verhund didn't have time to speak as the distance between the two was closing in swiftly, He ran atop a table full of monster toys and jumped towards a wooden shop sign held by chains, and with a bar technique, he was on top of a wooden stall.

He then jumped again and held onto the french balcony behind the stall before climbing upwards to the roof.

Meanwhile, scimitar man stepped up a randomly placed stage close by and managed to scale a small shack just beside Verhund's position, though he would have so climb another floor to reach his height.

"It's about time to end this, picked the wrong opponent."

Although his positioning and timing were still pretty awkward, Love Apple Protector was visibly getting better, there was less hesitation to his moves, he could put basic movements to practice and was slowly progressing all the while keeping up with his playing around.

Not to say that his hostage's existence was getting in the way, he almost couldn't make a proper jump after latching on the board with it occupying one of his hands.

Having come to a conclusion, Verhund fell to the building in front of him and jumped on top of a carriage traveling through a big street, he had left the marketplace. Of course, he didn't cross right through it, he had just made a turn to the closest exit.

As Verhund touched the ground and ran through the crowd, his pursuer alighted from the marketplace, he swept his gaze at his surroundings and locked onto Verhund so fast he looked like a stalker.

They were both slowed down by the crowd but Verhund was still somehow slower, it didn't matter, though, as he soon reached an overpass beautifully decorated in blooming flowers and dropped again.

Scimitar Man's P.O.V.

Wander swam through the crowd and followed the highlighted silhouette of the thief, still sporting a wry visage from being forced to tumble through rooftops and chaotic streets. Still, his actions gave him the parkour skill and a couple of levels in it, so his time was not completely wasted even if he failed to catch the slippery rogue.

He gave a sigh as he questioned whether he could actually enter a Household at this pace, although his cheat allowed him to learn any skill through practice and had some useful quirks like a map and the highlight function, he first had to actually practice those skills to gain proficiency and most "packaged skills" as they were called didn't offer tangible results on normal occasions, although they were certainly useful when in a pinch.

While Wander was lost in thought, the man he was following jumped down again, this time from an overpass and disappeared from his view. Wander quickly followed him down but when he touched the ground and started rolling, his awkward movement derived from his low skill level came to bite him again.

His roll was ultimately unable to disperse the fall from eight meters high and - despite his enhanced stats given as a "welcoming gift" - he had one of his legs almost sprained and certainly numb.

He staggered towards the other end of the passage below the overpass even though the thief completely vanished, he wanted to be sure there was no way to give further chase before giving up.

Halfway there, however, Wander suffered a flying kick to the ribs and fell face first to the ground, the thief hid above the entrance of the passage.

Grunting, he turned his body to see the stolen love apple in a pointed stick flying towards his chest and stumbled back to the earth after catching it in his hands.

As he hissed because of the wound in his ribs, he heard a lively voice, which sounded so annoying for some reason.

"Man, just where are the guards at times like these? Welp, lucky me, I guess. By the way, friend, thanks for the present, you can keep the apple as a sign of gratitude."

The footsteps sounded especially loud as the man leisurely left the location, leaving Wander alone in the ground with the afternoon sunlight barely touching his feet.

"That could have increased my Vitality, what a waste."

Indeed, his base stats couldn't increase because he had yet to join a Household, so aside from repeatedly training his skills - which weren't high either because he had arrived just a few days ago - he couldn't do anything else to increase his strength.

Wander stood a minute or two lying there, wallowing in his misfortune before remembering that he had a low-quality potion just in case in one of the leather bags tied to his belt. Taking the small flask out, he drank its contents in a few gulps and soon felt good enough to stand up.

It was then that he noticed that his short sword was missing, nowhere to be found.

"Chasing the robber just to get mugged, damn."

He could do nothing but sigh. Still, he got the love apple back without a speck of dirt in it.

...

Thankfully, the chase itself was not long, so didn't take much time to walk back to the marketplace. Finding the couple again, however, took a good while.

"Hey, you there!"

"Yes, how can we help you?"

"I just wanted to have a quiet date..."

"What was it, Goddess?"

"Nothing..."

"You guys were the ones who had their love apple stolen by some stranger, right?"

"Eh, you brought it back? Sorry for the trouble!"

"Yesh! Thank you! *Munch! Munch! Munch!*Hey Kodoni, have a bite too!"

"Alright, just a moment, Goddess. Thanks for bringing it back in one piece but, unfortunately, we don't have anything to repay you with."

"It's fine, I did it because it was the right thing to do. It's a pity that the thief managed to run away, though."

"*Munch!* Oh, I gknow! *Gulp* You're an adventurer, right?"

"I am indeed, why?"

"Do you serve a Household already?"

"Unfortunately, no."

"Then why not join us? We're having a bit of a financial problem and would appreciate any help we can get!"

"Are you sure about me just joining like that, though?"

"Uhum, no problem! In fact, you would be helping us!"

"Uhm. Well then, I'm Wander Culligan, I'll be in your care."

"Kodoni Lawrence, likewise."

"And I'm Hestia! Welcome to the Household!"

And so, Wander coincidentally joined a Household just like that. It seemed his luck was not so bad, though his ribs still hurt.

Little did Wander know that Verhund had also stolen some sweets along with the love apple.