9 Pair of ghosts
|Farid's POV:|
...
The next morning came by sooner than I expected.
Unlike what I had thought, sister Elena didn't seem to know about my disappearance, and the day simply transcurred like always until the hour of sleeping arrived, much to my distress.
My mind was prepared to face an angry Elena, but seeing her act caringly like a sister like always, was only making me doubt whether she was acting or not...
What was more strange, was that during the day I was unable to find the girl inside the orphanage, and when I asked the others about her, they simply shrugged their shoulders and told me that no one had actually arrived today.
Who was that girl, then...?
If she wasn't from the orphanage... Then what secret of mine was she talking about...?
Pondering the situation for a few minutes, it didn't take me very long to figure out that the girl had probably discovered my identity as the midget bounty hunter, instead of it just being that she knew about my escapades from the orphanage.
That, or she was the ghost of a dead girl from the orphanage, just like that from the stories that the older kids here used to tell me when I arrived here...
After all, why would a girl of her age be standing in front of the orphanage at night, smiling so strangely at me for no reason at all?
-Gasp!-
Don't tell me that's why her name seemed SO familiar! Vivi was probably the name of one of the ghosts from the rumors!
And if I follow the way this kind of story goes, now that I have realized the truth, Vivi will come at night and try to kill me in a horrifying way.
That, or I was just letting my imagination run too wild.
-Sigh...-
I don't know which option was worse now. To have my secret be revealed to some random girl, or to have a ghost haunting me for no reason.
Ghosts can be pretty scary though...
"Hmph, whatever! As the strongest man in the world, I can't be afraid of ghosts, can I?"
-Rustle...-
Stretching myself, I stood up from the bed and walked toward the bathroom to start doing my necessities.
On my way to the bathroom, I looked through one of the orphanage's windows and noticed that the sky was still dark outside, which meant that it was still pretty early in the morning.
Ever since I increased my stamina to 300 points, the hours of sleep I used to need to wake up refreshed had decreased drastically. Which also meant that I could wake up at whichever hour I wanted, and always be the first one to use the bathroom.
And I kinda needed it. After all, fighting pirates gets you very dirty, you know?
-Sigh...-
Though, now that I think about it... What should I do about my remaining status points?
I said that I wanted to save them up. However, I can't contain my curiosity about what the other stats do...
I leveled most of them by one level, but I wasn't really able to feel anything change in my fighting power... Unlike the other stats like strength, stamina, and defense, which results were a lot more evident.
There were some that I understood their purpose because the name made it evident. But there were some that could only make me theorize about their purpose because of how ambiguous they were.
And as I mentioned once before, they were pretty damn expensive! Which made me hesitant to try to level them up and see what they did.
Right now, I had around 45,000 Status points, and even though this fortune of status points should pretty much allow my strength, stamina, and defense to increase by a 1,000 points each, and maybe a little bit more, it was already becoming hard for me to deal with my current strength... So increasing them was a no-no for me for the time being...
Thus, I had no idea what to do with my status points.
Either they were too expensive, to the point where my small fortune seemed to barely be enough to pay for them... Or I simply didn't want to increase anymore some stats that were already too high level...
The pirates that I have been defeating also didn't make much of a difference with the Kuno guy's clone in terms of status points... So increasing the gathering speed was impossible for the time being.
At most, that guy called Sebastian of the mustache of the death was the only one whom I was considering selecting as my new opponent, as his rewards were 0.3-0.4 status points every time the record I would set passed. However, considering that he felt pretty sturdy when I punched him, I was wondering whether I would really be able to defeat him in 5 seconds like with that Kuno guy's clone.
After all, using my poor mathematical abilities, I discovered that if I couldn't defeat him in five seconds or less, there wouldn't be an actual improvement in the status points gathering speed. And considering his more sturdy body, and that he probably had more willpower than that Kuno guy, then it was very probable that he could maintain his consciousness for a few seconds more than him.
Thus, I was stuck with my current opponent for now... Or, at least, until I discovered how to end the fights within just one second.
Leaving the matter of my opponent aside, there were some stats in which I was interested in raising, despite them being really expensive.
They were: Healing speed, Soul Power, Eyesight, and all the Haki stats.
Healing speed was pretty much self-explanatory. However, this stat in specific seemed to have as its upper limit the level of 1,000. And considering that each level costs me 1,000 status points, it was safe to say that it would take a million status points to be able to max it out.
However, just imagining myself receiving a pretty serious injury by my nemesis, and then recovering in just one second tempted me a lot to try and max it out right away.
Then it was Soul power, which much like strength, stamina, defense, and internal defense, didn't seem to have an upper limit like Healing speed, despite being equally expensive as it.
What was left for me to say? Soul power sounded like a pretty darn epic stat if I had to say so... Who knows what kind of overpowered ability would it give me if I increased it?
Next was Eyesight... And goddamn... all of the stats in the [Senses] Category were incredibly expensive...! Even if I spent all my status points in this stat, it would only allow me to level it up by 4 meager levels... However, if it did what I was thinking, then it was totally worth the status points!!
Hehehe... If you know what I mean...
And finally, were the three Haki-thingy stats.
I didn't really understand what this Haki thing was, and why it was separated into three types called Armament, observation, and Conqueror's Haki. However, there was one thing that I was sure about... Conqueror's Haki sounds like something that I, the strongest man in the world, should have.
Besides, these were all in the [Special skills] Category, so it was obvious that they were all special in a certain way... In which way? I don't know, but they probably were. Otherwise, I don't think they would be on the screen.
However, this decision would need to be left for later. As soon, a voice called out to me and snapped me out of my daze at seeing my status window.
"Farid, are you in the bathroom again...?"
"Uh, yes sister Elena... I'll get out in a second!"
Whatever, there's not even someone able to face my strength in this city any longer... So, why am I being in such a hurry...?
A wise man said once "Patience is a virus"
Or was it a "virtue"?
I don't know anymore.
°
°
°
|A few hours later...|
...
"Ugh... Damn brats, why can't they simply stay calm for one day..."
Looking at sister Elena from the distance, I smiled mischievously as I observed her tiredly walk towards her room while muttering something about us, not caring anymore about the world.
There was this special moment in the day when sister Elena would leave us alone to do whatever we wanted while she relaxed in her room. It was pretty much like an unwritten rule in the orphanage to not cause trouble when this time had arrived, as sister Elena would turn into a horrible monster if she were to get interrupted while relaxing.
It was also during sister Elena's relaxing time that I always escaped from the orphanage silently, as it usually lasted for quite a few hours minimum before she would come out of her room to make dinner. Which was usually enough to go and take down a few pirates before coming back.
-Slam!-
"Fuh~ She finally left..."
Seeing sister Elena slam the door, and immediately left my hiding spot and moved towards my room while making sure to not call anyone's attention.
-Rustle...-
Moving fast in order to not waste any time, I packed my bounty hunter costume into my bag and rapidly opened the window of my room before jumping out towards the outside.
After that, I ran across the garden of the orphanage stealthily, making sure to not step on any of the flowers there, as sister Elena would become a furious demon if I did, before I then arrived at the wall that separated the outside from the orphanage, and started climbing it with expertise.
I have been doing this for a month, after all. Don't underestimate my climbing abilities!
-Thud!-
-Whistle~-
"Another successful escape..."
Smiling proudly at my achievement, I patted my clothes to shake off the dust, before I then turned to look in front of me, ready to start walking towards the city.
However, I was stopped right in my tracks as soon as I was about to do it, as I was met with the ghostly face of a man staring straight into my eyes, his face being just a few centimeters away from mine.
"Holy cow of all cows!"
As I saw him, I couldn't help but let out a shriek in fright, and accidentally fell on my buttocks because of the surprise.
Suddenly, as I was still looking at him in confusion, the mysterious man stayed silent for a few seconds, before he frowned slightly while looking at me.
"Hmm... You don't act like a bounty hunter at all... Vivi-sama, are you sure that this kid here is who you say he is...?"
Vivi?
Suddenly, as if answering my confusion, the voice of the girl that I met yesterday soon reached my ears.
"I'm sure, Pell, I saw it with my own eyes!"
"Huh... If you say so..."
Even more confused than before, I moved my head slightly to the side and saw the girl called Vivi standing right behind the man with a wry smile on her face.
Suddenly, as if something was clicking on my mind after seeing the appearance of the man and hearing him call the girl "Vivi-sama", I finally comprehended who these two were...
"I see..."
Muttering in a low voice while looking down, I stood up while squeezing tightly my fists, and turned to look at the man in front of me with unwavering eyes.
Seemingly noticing the change in my attitude, the man widened his eyes and smiled slightly before he crossed his arms.
"Hoh...? It seems like you finally realized who we were... Indeed, as you might be thinking, we are-"
The man was about to say something, but I interrupted him immediately in order to assert my dominance in the conversation.
"So you were indeed a ghost!! Very well, it seems like you came to finish the job, but let me say this to you, ghost girl, even with your ghostly bodyguard, you can't defeat me!!"
...
"...?"
"...?"
Both of them looked awestruck after my threat. Hah, they probably never expected that a kid like me could face them head-on despite being ghosts... However, as the strongest person in the world, I can't simply back down just because ghosts are slightly scary...
I will show them that they shouldn't mess with me!
...
...
...
Hmm?
Why are they looking at me like that...?
...
-To be continued-
