[Plundered: One-Time Reversal]

There were many lessons an aspiring adventurer could learn from his peers. How to pick good quest, how to negotiate the fees, how to cooperate with their party… No one, however, could prepare them for the one element that all the missions, all the adventures, had in common.

Boredom.

A vast steppe to the left, a deep primordial forest to the right, and an endless string of road stretching as far as one could see - if not for the impenetrable darkness of the deep night.

This scenery that Theo's party of five had to endure for the past three days wasn't doing them any favors in terms of dealing with the greatest enemy of adventurers — boredom. And so, desperate for something to occupy their thoughts, they just chatted away, discussing anything and everything in a desperate bid to counter the overwhelming boredom.

Two weeks.

That's how long it took them to reach this godforsaken place that map-makers had long given up on, throwing their tools aside and marking it as "here there be monsters." And if their luck would have it, that's how long it would then take them to return.

This whole mission, a month-long expedition, would be decided withing just few short minutes in between. 

"Silence!"

The huntress raised her fist, cutting everyone's chatter at once and bringing all five of them to a sudden halt.

After weeks of nothing but boring themselves to death as they traveled, their five fated minutes were about to begin.

Snap.

Up ahead, the heavy warrior of the group snapped his fingers and reached his hand to the back, over in Theo's direction.

Wasting no words, Theo reached to the side of luggage strapped to his back, clipped the man's heavy axe out of its holster, and, after taking but a second to calculate the trajectory, tossed it ahead.

Out of the whole group, only the Huntress fervently refused to leave her main weapon with him, refusing to accept the sense of unease she felt without it even if it came at a cost of losing the benefits of Theo's carrier blessing on it. 

This then continued as Theo distributed the party's weapons around, ranging from the leader's bastard's sword, through the twin rapiers of the swashbuckler and at the saintess' decorated staff ending. 

The whole process lasted no longer than three seconds, completed in perfect silence as the group readied themselves for combat.

Two weeks after their departure from the frontier town, the climax of their adventure was fast approaching. 

'Today's the day, man,' Theo gulped his saliva down as he retreated to the very back of the group and armed himself with a surprisingly simple knife, just slightly longer than what one could find in your average kitchen. He kept it in his off-hand, however, already using his dominant one to pick one of the soft-glass potions from the special vine tacked to the sides of his tiered luggage.

As opposed to the four geniuses ahead, Theo, even after years of struggle, failed to find a single field he would be naturally talented at. Be it magic, swordmanship or even agility or raw power, his potential was - at most - average. Yet, unable to free himself from the company of those four, after many years of struggle, he finally managed to combine all of his weird talents and abilities to be of some help to the group. 

A quest he ventured on all on his own volition, unable to bear the thought of being just a mere mascot of the group, an introvert who just happened to get lucky enough to be adopted by the extroverted four ahead.

 - He is coming.- 

The Huntress, low on her knees, raised her fist, only to open it up and point ahead, before closing her fist again and shaking it one, two, and then a total of three times.

'Thirty seconds,' Theo read the signal, clenching his fingers over the sphere of the soft-glass potion full of vicious substance, ready to do his part. Whether he had to support the Saintess healing efforts or annoy the living hell out of their enemy, he was ready.

Off to the side, the saintess's staff shone with a dim light for a fraction of a second, only for the night to suddenly grow all the darker as the divine-rank covert spell hid their presence - the ace card of the party, perfectly suited to the most reliable tactic non-ascenders ever developed for hunting those who absolved themselves of human limits. 

The time passed slowly in the silent darkness of the imperial outskirts. Seconds trickled by just like usual… and yet, the thirty seconds that one would normally fail to notice the passing of, now…?

Now, this short moment seemed to stretch out to infinity.

Roughly ten seconds after the Huntress's signal, Theo heard it.

The sound of a lone pair of boots crushing the small stones of the gravel road underneath the weight of their owner.

Five seconds later, the rest of the group shifted a bit, indicating they'd also taken notice of the sound. A minor detail that didn't escape Theo's attention.

'Don't get conceited, man,' Theo thought to himself, wiping the smirk that momentarily emerged on his lips. 'You might be a jack of all trades, but they are the ones who actually mastered their own fields.'

Theo took a deep breath, calming himself down as he laid in wait, patiently looking for the first sign of his companions springing up the ambush.

This wasn't the time to let himself be distracted with useless thoughts. Not when their target was an ascender, a being that went beyond the limits of human talent.

The Huntress shook her fist one last time before moving it to pull the string of her bow. To the side, the Saintess's staff shone with dim light again, stacking yet another blessing over the group - blessing only further reinforced by the Carrier buff on her staff. 

Five seconds.

By now, Theo could make out the silhouette of the lone man absentmindedly walking in their direction, just a few steps away from where the fate would draw everyones' lots. His companions, on the other hand, didn't even need to see their target, not when the man's overbearing aura more than just made up for the lack of direct vision.

'Three, two…'

Theo breathed out as he counted in his thoughts.

Right as he was to mentally voice 'one,' however, he swung his right arm and tossed his vicious potion ahead. 

Snap!

The whole group leaped into action all at once, their movements shattering the delicate weave of the Saintess's covert spell.

The leader pulled his sword from down low, drawing an upward arcs right at where the ascender stood. Two steps off to the side, the swashbuckler lunged out, not at the target himself, but at a diagonal that cut off two of the man's possible routes of escape. A bit behind, the Huntress released the string of her overdrawn bow, her explosive-strapped arrow shining with the light of the Saintess blessing as it shoot forth, ready to explode behind the ascender's back. 

Lagging behind everyone, the heavy of the group brought his axe up high, aiming right at the only possible spot their target could dodge to. 

This was the true and tested way of dealing with the ascenders, a tactic one still needed a whole group of experts to perform. Contrary to what bards just loved to sign about, even ascenders could only guard from so many simultaneous attacks!

A split of a second before all of those attacks struck, Theo's potion left the range of his influence, the soft-glass of the spherical vial solidifying back into the shatter-crystal it was made with.

PANG!

The sound of the curse-potion shattering combined with the noise of the swords clashing, as the heretic pissed all over their elaborate plan, opting to just stand… and take all the attacks head-on. 

The potion shattered, splattering its sticky, mana-rich content all over the heretic while the party's the leader collapsed, his sword cleaved in two along with his entire dominant side, sliced off by the man's attack that Theo's eyes failed to follow. 

Both the swashbuckler and the heavy gritted their teeth and ignored the plight of their partner, pressing with the attack. 

The heretic, however… just took it.

Rather than stepping back after a successful counter, he pushed into the attacks instead, allowing the swashbuckler's rapier to pierce his gut while just… slapping the heavy axe's blade away with his hand, using this opening to drive his sword into the heavy's heart. 

'Shit!'

Cursing to high heavens, Theo forcefully restrained his emotions and grabbed another potion instead. 

Judging by the faint glow around the leader's terrible wound, the Saintess was already on it, meaning…

'Just hold on!'

Right as the heretical ascender pulled his sword out of the heavy's chest, Theo's potion of divine healing smashed against the man's back, restoring his wound roughly at the same speed as the heretic's blade created it. 

In this short moment, however, the heretic already smashed the rapier's blade with the pommel of his sword, leaning off to avoid the swashbuckler's next lunge, already driving his knee into the lean man's stomach and sending him flying. 

"AARGH!"

Save for the sound of metal clashing against metal, leader's pained scream was the very first noise to cut through the silence of the night, followed by a small, localized explosion of the Huntress's shining arrow. 

An explosion that finally shed some light on this brutal, bloody scene.

By no means was the heretic in good shape.

The shards of Theo's cursed potion stuck out all over his skin and clothes, quite a few of them turning crimson from the man's blood as the shattered crystal absorbed it, only reinforcing the power of the liquid curse those shards were coated with. 

That was a good sign.

The fact that the marks of the curse had yet to appear on the man's face, however, told a different story. 

Thankfully, that wasn't all.

Two arrows grew from the heretic's chest, just an inch or two shy of his heart. The rapier's broken blade stuck out from the man's stomach, his blood vividly flowering over his plain clothes. 

Theo's team, however, was in far worse shape.

The leader was slowly breathing his last, the saintess's spell struggling to keep up with the rate at which the man was bleeding out. The heavy was in a slightly better state, but the strain of having his heart pierced and then forcefully restored was quite visible even from Theo's point of view. Even the saintess was already bleeding from her eyes and ears, burning through her mental reserves to maintain her spells and keep the leader alive.

Out of everyone, only the Huntress and Theo remained perfectly well…

But while the flash of the exploding light allowed Theo to better orient himself in the situation, it also gave the heretic the opportunity he needed to locate the annoying fly that kept skewering him with arrows.

Poof!

At one moment, the heretic just stood there, scanning the whole area with his eyes as he rapidly took stock of the situation. Next, he was half-leaned forward, his entire body bent by the momentum of a powerful slash with which he cleaved the huntress in half. 

Theo's hand trembled… and grasped another potion.

There was no time for grief over the loss of a another long-time friend. The only way for any of them to survive, was to deal with this damned heretic first!

'Hesitate and you die,' hypnotizing himself with the mantra, he grabbed another potion…

But with the first decisive loss, the cohesion of the group shattered in an instant.

To the side, the saintess collapsed, her eyes empty and burned out from the strain of the several spells she was trying to juggle at the same time. Ahead,, the heretic already jumped at and decapitated the swashbuckler, only now revealing the full extent of his ascender-worthy agility. 

By the time Theo blinked and bent his arm to toss his next potion, the heretic had already driven his sword right back into the heavy's chest, redoing the same wound that Theo's potion almost healed, while stomping down on the leader's throat, crushing it beneath his foot.

'Shit! Fuck!'

It didn't take a genius to understand what was happening. And yet, despite watching all of his long-time friends fall… Theo's brain simply refused to process this information.

And so, he went ahead and threw the binding potion… only to realize that by the time the soft-glass left his hand, the heretic was there, just a few inches ahead, staring him down with a mix of amusement and curiosity brimming in his black, otherwise emotionless eyes.

Then, without another word…

Theo smiled right as the man brought his sword for the final strike of the failed ambush.

'Bind!'

The potion shattered just an inch behind the heretic's back.

It was a gamble.

A gamble Theo never thought he would actually perform. A gamble based on nothing but the one skill in his arsenal he never found real use for.

A gamble that made him smirk as the heretic drove the cold blade through his heart.

Theo's mouth trembled as his body stumbled forth, hanging on the ascender's sword like a puppet on a puppeteer's string. 

From the outside, it could look like a trusted friend leaning in to share some sort of great secret with his companion. 

Visibly amused, the heretic appeared not to mind this kind of final act of the fight, holding off for just a single moment from pulling his sword out and ending Theo's story here and now.

And as Theo's lips reached near the heretic's ear…

"Usher in me."

The world started to fade from Theo's eyes right as his greatest trick, one he never got to use before, finally activated. And for but a single instant, he shared all of himself, all of the causality affecting him, with the target of his shrewd, taboo-breaking trick.

The effects of a sword piercing his heart included. 

***

[System: Condition Check]

[Conditions Fulfilled: 97/97]

[SSS Rank Talent Unlocked!]

[Activate: Plunder]

[Plundered: One-Time Reversal]

[System: Condition Check]

[\]

[/]

[\]

[/]

[Conditions Fulfilled: 472/999]

[Calculating Range]

[One-Time Reversal Activates!]

***

Several lines of strange, blocky text appeared right before Theo's vision, only for his fading consciousness to fail to even register them. Yet, as the world before Theo's eyes blacked out…

***

***

***

"GO!"

A powerful, guttural shout filled the air, causing Theo's well-trained body to jump up and leap ahead, perfectly matching the jump of two dozen fellow cadets of his group. 

There was no time to waste, nor any effort he could or was allowed to spare!

This race, this exam… their results would not only decide whether or not they could attend the royal academy, but also the terms on which they could do so!

Would they be forced to endlessly juggle side jobs and lectures just to keep themselves fed and clothed? Or maybe they would gain enough credits to afford a room in the academy's dorms along with all the privileges that came with it? Or, if they maxed out the score from all three of the ranking tests, would they enter the academy as a part of the royal class, with benefits no others would be afforded?

Theo matched his running speed to the rest of the group, relying on nothing more than the muscle memory that translated the drill sergeant's voice into a strict order, an absolute obligation his muscles would never fail to follow.

On the inside, however, the young man was too shocked to form a single, cohesive thought.

Not only because he somehow failed to die and - as it appeared - went back in time.

No, that wasn't even the biggest surprise of the day, as weird as it might seem. 

Even the death of his friends and his own demise became nothing more than fleeting, irrelevant matters Theo simply couldn't be bothered to think about in the face of the core discovery he made. 

Because for the very first time in his… in this life, he opened his eyes to see this world for what it was.

A world of the novel he read back in his teenage years. A reality of adventure, grief, and moral lessons, as packed with great joys and wonders as it was with hardship and struggle.

A world… where he was but a side character, who the novel's author only ever afforded three paragraphs worth of content. But as if just hoping to change his fate so that wouldn't end up as a corpse of an extra, now that he knew this was a world of a certain story, he also had the literal apocalypse to worry about!

'But…'

Still relying on just his muscle memory to keep running, Theo gulped his spit down his throat.

'Since when do extras get talents second only to divine?' he asked himself, refusing the desire to just look down at the palms of his hands out of fear that doing so would cause him to stumble and fall in a race where he could, according to the plot of the story, afford absolutely no mistakes.

'And what's with that crazy number of conditions necessary to unlock that plunder skill of mine?!'