13 Escape

Like a flash Foo rushed out of the clearing. Leaving the woman stunned in the clearing, the bottoms of her robes now soaked in goblin blood.

Only after reaching halfway to the city, Foo stopped. His brain rebooted, and he could finally think back on what happened. His first response was: ``What the hell is up with that title?!`` Yet again feeling like crying. ``I did not do it on purpose! Okay?!``

Calming down a bit, he continues: ``And what is with that emoticon? You make me look like a bully, or worse!``

He had already realized that this system had a couple of tonnes of screws loose. It seems like the system is just a giant bug! Content with his description of the system, Foo inspected the new sword skill again. ``What the?! ❰Instant-draw cheese cutter❱? Come on! How can you give it such a lame name!`` A masterpiece of his... sullied... This system did not have any naming sense at all! What cheese? What the heck did cheese have anything to do with anything?

Foo felt pained. ``It is still as powerful as it was in the game... but with this name I would die of shame if anyone were to know about it! The name is ❰Instant-draw sword slash❱!! If there is a way for people to apprise skills by looking at them, I really am screwed! How could one even walk with a straight back if they relied on a skill named ❰Instant-draw cheese cutter❱?``

Feeling really down as he just gained an epic sword skill that he could never use, his last flicker of hope that the system would change the skill name as it did before was extinguished.

In a gloomy mood he went back to the guild. Anyone that met him could feel the depressing aura that radiated from him, which was so heavy that it would even make a corpse doubt the allure of life.

When he reached the desk, Einar asked with concern: "Did you fail? The sure-kill talk did not work?" Clearly trying to cheer him up, he continued. "Do not worry about that! You took a high ranking mission right of the bat. You should have tried an easier one first, just to get a hang of it. Maybe join a party to get some experience first."

The depressed Foo could not even bother to be upset at the words of comfort that Einar gave him. Instead he cut to the chase: "It is done. It was one more goblin than reported, but i took care of them."

The news clearly surprised Einar. "They could understand you?!" Foo only massaged his forehead and said: "I used my sword skills! My sword skills!"

Startled, Einar blinked his eyes a few times. "You are proficient with the sword?" He asked. Foo took a moment to calm down, before he answered: "Yes, why would I not be?"

Finally realizing that he might be a bit rude, Einar coughs and continues: "Alright then, just place the cores over here." Greeted by a blank stare, Einar then asked: "You did extract the cores, right?" The still blank face was more than enough to answer the question.

Einar was puzzled over the situation. Oftentimes rookie adventurers thinks that they are so clever when they bring other cores to pretend that they have cleared the quest, which of course is found out by a close inspection of the cores. But he had never heard of anyone doing the quest and returning without any cores.

By looking at Foo, Einar could see that he had traveled in the forest. The earlier pristine clothing was now a bit disheveled and dirty. Not attesting to a fight, but at least some travel in the forest. The time was also reasonable, albeit a bit fast. Nothing was really standing out to say that he were just pretending. Not that Einar would dare even to think to confront this dangerous man.

"Well," Einar said. "As a F ranker, your word is definitely authoritative, and as such I will mark the quest as completed." With a apologizing tone, he continued: "But i am afraid I cannot give out the reward without the cores."

Not really caring about the reward, Foo responds: "That is fine, I just took the quest to try it out." It was not that he did not care about the money, but was too depressed to extort... eh... extract the cores from the goblins now. Yes, he was too tired to go back and extract the cores from the goblins. He was definitely not have some stray thoughts about how to gain that reward anyway.

When getting that out of the way, Einar could ask the question that had plagued him quite a while now: "How come that you did not bring the cores?" The only reason he could think of was that Foo had failed. But he had show some serious combat prowess earlier. To such a degree that Einar did not even dare to insinuate in his mind that Foo would be unable to use the sword. And as it seemed that he was not after the reward, there was even less reasons to why he would lie.

Foo was embarrassed. He did not even know about the cores, so how could he possible have thought of extracting them? But when he thought back, Einar might have said something about that when Foo exited the guild the last time. To say that he did not know would be quite embarrassing, especially as it seems that Einar had instructed him earlier. Also, even if he knew, as he had to escape before he could even take a look at the corpses, there was no way to extract the cores anyway.

Thinking back to the encounter with the goblins, Foo felt shivers down his spine. "I met a behemoth class danger right after i took care of the goblins." He answered, remembering the close shave.