9 The Law of Murphy
A few things I wanted to mention.
I've been doing some grammar corrections in the last couple chapters so if you go back and check it you might find some stuff a tad bit different and some paragraphs phrased a bit better.
I've changed the following names by the way.
Talent: Sculpting => Talent: Pottery
Talent: Scholar => Talent: Academic
Quirk: Animal Aspect/Animorph=>Quirk: (I'm leaving the name blank for now, after being reminded I remenbered quirks here are named by the kids themselfs, and because I've been unable to come up with a satisfying name)
On a side note, just to specify, the protagonist calls the talent redistribution panel a cheat and stuff like that but in very its very essence it's a quirk. A bizarre and mutated quirk that shouldn't exist but it's a quirk.
Oh and if you get a bit of a dark feeling reading the chapter, blame youtube for throwing a 'Dark Cello melancholic instrumental' on autoplay that lasts for two hours while I was focused in writing.
—-
Since the traumatic experience in the car ride with his Auntie, Thaumiel found his 'efficience' seemed to have slowed down somewhat
Admittedly, after such a narrow escape from death, he seemed to have burst a never before known 'thirsty' for more talents, for more power.
His insecurity became more alarming, making his instincts drive him to look for some way to better assure his own safety.
Yet it's not because sometimes you grow an exploding determination to fulfill a goal, that this drive will necessarily last long enough to fulfill that goal.
On the next day after the incident Thaumiel was inspired, full of energy and wanting to try even more things.
Thus pulling some other kids in preschool they convinced the teacher to have a swimming class allowing him to gain a Swimming talent.
He also came up with the idea of grabbing ice cubes from the fridge and trying to use a knife to 'sculpt' the ice, gaining the Ice Sculpting talent.
That surprisingly combined with: Blacksmithing, Carpentry, Pottery and Tailoring, to form a talent called Artisan.
He also got a cleaning Talent as well after getting his firs duty day in preschool.
Feeling bold and trying to think 'outside the box' he even attempted some things he had never considered in his two lives such as lockpicking, pickpocketing and disguising which not only generated a couple new talents but also fused becoming a talent called Thievery.
He even went so far as to look up map making and try to make one of his school which finally allowed him to reach the 999 TTP mark.
Yet with each day things slowly became more hard.
His ideas started to dry and not every attempt generated a talent.
Some just upgraded already existing talents and some simply seemed to not have a related talent.
Encountering more and more failures as well caused him to start dedicating less time to upgrading his Talent's levels and focus even harder on tryign to aquire new talents.
'I can always make up for the lost time as long as I have enough points!'
With such a mentality his progress stagnated.
Skills that could easily be upgraded to high mastery as long as he spent a little time practicing stayed in the low level as he was simply too focused in trying to find new talents to aquire mre points.
Yet all he seemed to get were frustrations building up as his irritability grew like a PG.
In his annoyance things only got darker making Thaumiel feel like a person trapped in quicksand.
The more he moves and struggles the faster he seems to sink.
It also didn't help that Makima who was the origin of this whole problem for him acted just like usual making him all the more confused on the inside.
'Is she still suspecting something? Is she over her suspicions? Is she just letting me relax my guard again?'
Unable to distinguish a single thought from the woman who was like a jiggle saw puzzle, paired with his young brain overcomplicating everything inside his head.
A deep feeling of weariness and slowness started to affect him.
Everything just seemed to be going downhill and the more he tried the more frustrating it all was making the situation only seem more bleak.
And at some point Thaumiel couldn't quite figure out, he discovered not only was he no longer looking for new talents but he also wasn't leveling his own talents as well.
He had over a 999 TTP which was well enough to turn himself into an almost omnipotent genius in anything…
Yet he spent most of his time in a daze staring at the ceiling.
'Just like the original'
Empty, defeated, frustrated, irritable, pessimistic...
'Why am I like this again…'
In this situation that only seemed to make things accelerate toward rock bottom Thaumiel concurred he was probably getting depressed.
'I suppose that's what you get when placing an hyperactive teen with lots of concerns in the underdeveloped brain of a kid living with a sociopath.'
In fear of getting to catatonic state, Thaumiel did the only thing he could think of in that situation.
He pushed all the points into meditation and simply used the talent like a drug to clear his brain and drive away all the distracting, sad and useless thoughts.
It worked.
Not perfectly since once he stops meditating those sensations slowly grow again… but at least he managed to become 'functional' once again.
Though he didn't return to 'gridding' other talents right away.
Instead with a mentality of trying he focused all his talents on meditation and kept upgrading it.
regardless of Makima, or training, or looking for more points…
He basically changed his routine to going to school, going to the dojo and meditating.
And with the huge amount of points and constant efforts day after day the talent increased in explosive speed.
From the original level 33 it went to level 34 in less than an hour.
With the rest of the evening it was already at 35.
By the next evening it was already at level 36.
Within the next few days it was at 37.
This kept going for almost an entire month of using every time available between activities to meditate regardless of things.
He just wanted to focus on this one thing and actually feel this one 'win' to cheer himself up again.
With such speed the Talent rose all the way up to 49 where it seemed to hit a wall.
He had long known that the difficulty of leveling increased exponentially at every level yet 49 was an unusually hard level to overcome.
He felt this even more intuitively because dispise how much 'talent' he had put into meditation, Thaumiel still couldn't pick out on anything he could do better or anything he could improve or anything new to try.
He seemed to reach the 'peak' when it came to meditation.
There was… something a barrier of some kind he couldn't quite figure out that prevented his progress yet Thaumiel could be sure it was there.
The amount of talent he had was screaming at him about that barrier yet he couldn't find out how to surpass it or break it no matter how long.
He did have a theory though.
'The limit.'
A natural ceiling so to speak.
It was bound for one to exist as he was at the end only human, no matter how much 'talent' he could amass.
Just like when a person trains jumping, no matter what manner, shape or form you practice at some point you'll simply not be able to jump higher than a certain height .
It didn't matter what your genetics were or how hard you trained.
There was an indisputable limit for everything that lived.
And level 49 was his.
The theory made his mood fall back to the bottom.
This was it.
His biggest hope could only come so far.
LV49…
The world that slowly seemed a bit brighter became even darker than before.
And then he dropped meditation as well.
Entering a full walking dead state.
Living life just for living and waiting till the day Makima would make the next 'attempt' at unmasking him.
In such a foul mood, Thaumiel who was originally used to preschool classes couldn't help but find today's class to be the most boring one.
Laying his head on his desk using his books as a pillow his now more dull reddish eyes stared outside through the window.
The sky seemed so gray and cloudy making the weather look cold and lonely.
A feeling he deeply felt now.
'Ahhhh sometimes I just wish a meteor would fall on top of my head. Why drag me here if you are gonna put me in such a 'hopeless' situation?'
And surprisingly something did happen.
Not on top of his head though, but blasting through the classroom doors into his view.
…
As the chase reached its climax, the Sisifus's breath came in ragged gasps, his heart pounding against his chest like a drum in the heat of pursuit. His spiked letter jacket, torn and tattered, bearing after the relentless pursuit of the 'Valiant Soldier' hot on his trail.
With each desperate leap and bound, the supervillain found himself cornered, his options dwindling to by the second as he had already caused far too big of a commotion to be able to escape so easily. In a final, desperate bid for escape, he dashed into the nearest building, his footsteps echoing through the empty halls of the preschool.
In a flurry of motion his eyes target the first classroom door he could spot, bursting through it he seized the nearest unwitting preschoolers, their tiny hands reaching out in confusion and fear, their innocent eyes wide with bewilderment as they didn't dare to move once Sisifus hand's turned into sharp blades and were placed on the kids neck while his other hand turned into a gatling gun and pointed toward the rest of the classroom making the whole class freeze stiff in place.
With a menacing glint in his eye, the supervillain eyes the door he had just blasted through as soon enough the sight of the hateful hero that had frustrated his escape appeared.
"I'd stop there if i were you, Valiant boy~ You know how fragile kids are, it would be an absolute shame if they got hurt here because you took a wrong step, wouldn't it?"
He 'spat' out in a tone full of mockery laced with gloating and a tiny bit of crazy desperation.
Across him, the superhero valiant soldier paused, his heart heavy as he didn't dare to even move a muscle. With every fiber of his being, he knew that he could not afford to give Sisifus any chance to even consider harming the children.
"You bastard! Sísifo are you crazy? Taking kids hostage? I knew you were a coward but this is a new low even for you!"
Said Valiant Soldier, or Satoshi Ito as he was truly called. At the current moment Satoshi felt a sense of anger and fear he never felt before in his life.
With his quirk, 'Shields' that allowed him to create small shield like structures from his arms and use them for various purposes he had been pretty successful through his not too long of a career and was considered a pro-hero with promising prospects.
Yet with the situation in hand Satoshi knew if Sisifus was allowed to hurt even a single one of his kids ever so slightly, not to mention his career his own conscience would not be able to endure it.
'If only I had been performing in my usual area… DAMN I didn't know there was such a small preschool around here, I should have noticed faster! How could I give this bastard the chance!'
"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! You- whose fault do you think it is, huh? Always getting in my way, always being an eyesore! I just wanted to use my power to make a quick buck! What's wrong with that? I have power. Why shouldn't I use it to have an easy life? It's you fucking hypocrate moralists that are ruining this world and forcing me to do things like this!"
Crazed with desperation and minorly influenced with drugs Sisifus could barely keep his confused and erratic thoughts straight, he only was sure of one thing. Its because of this guy in front of him, no all these hero fuckers going around in stupid costumes pretending to be good two shoes that he dosn't get to enjoy the life someone like him deserves.
"Anyway I don't care, get out, you better get out of this class before I count to 3 otherwise the kids that die from getting a couple holes put in them will be on your head! Three!...Two!..."
"Okay okay calm down, I'm stepping back, just calm down!"
Satoshi said with visible nervousness as he hurriedly raised his hands and started to step back, slowly retreating outside of the classroom.
Once he was far enough Sisifus wasted no time and hurriedly stepped forth still holding a kid close as hostage as he kicked the door up and pressed onto the entrance he had made blocking the exit of the classroom and throwing a few desks toward it so the 'barrier would stay up!
With the room locked, Sisifus let go of the kid, turning his two arms into muzzles, keeping one of the kids and turning the other toward the paralyzed teacher at the small podium.
"You! gather those brats and huddle the fuck up to the corner, you got 10 seconds before I put a couple holes into you!"
He said while making his way toward the small windows and closing everything leaving only tiny small gaps that allowed the outside light to shine in bathing the whole classroom in a morbid silence and darkness.
It was precisely in such a turn of events Thaumiel along with 22 other kids and a female teacher became hostages of the supervillain Sisifus who was escaping from the hero Valiant Soldier
