You Got Knocked TF Out

There were still many things that Mark knew he needed to check about the Hand.

With his mask in Hand, Mark winded up his arm and hurled the mask casually.

He watched as the mask flew through the air before falling into a dirt alley between cobblestone houses.

'As I thought, the force is the same. The Hidden Hand is just an extension of my arm.'

The next thing he tried was using the Hidden Hand Skill in both arms simultaneously. Much to his glee, this was the case. They could also be extended independently of one another.

Another thing he needed to check was a bit out of the box. Retracting his arm, he pointed his fist towards his own torso, then extended it. His arm proceeded to push against him.

'So the retracting and extending is literal. It can't phase through matter, but despite that, the force will remain consistent with the power of my normal arms.'

The last—and by far the most important one—was if the Hand felt pain. While he knew he could physically feel the objects he touched with the Hand, he couldn't tell if pain was part of that package.

Mark began to gently punch a stone wall of the Gothic chapel, gradually increasing the force.

'No pain! Fantastic. I don't have to be afraid to punch people!'

Although the Hand could temporarily be destroyed; avoiding things that caused pain was just common sense, he couldn't disregard its safety that much.

With all of that out of the way, it was finally time to go back home and get on the grind before school started.

While it was past sunset in Straw Ridge, there was still plenty of daylight back at Kolzig-Bondra; Straw Ridge was farther East than the Academy and therefore had a few more hours of the sun left.

Making his way down the hill and towards the Kriophorus, Mark strutted confidently, content with the outcome of his Skill hunting excursion.

That was until he realized how open he was, especially in an impoverished ramshackle town at night.

Immediately he straightened himself up. The night was cold, but freezing was the least of his potential worries.

Mud squelched beneath his feet before transitioning to the flat stone main street which led directly to the distant portal.

'Really wish I had that Cat Eyes skill right now. I can't see shit…'

In the end, his caution paid dividends.

"Hey, you there!" a voice from the darkness called out.

Mark stood still with his hands in his pockets, squinting in front of him as he attempted to make out the approaching figure.

"Hmm?"

The voice's owner finally came into Mark's sight.

"Look, I don't wanna hurt you, kid," the figure threatened sadistically. "Just hand over whatever money you have, and you can be on your merry way."

'Perfect. A level one crook. How convenient…'

It was a ragged-looking middle-aged man. Unclean, unkempt, and had the glinting eyes of a killer.

"Stay where you are, I'm trying to do something," Mark warned. "And I have no money."

'If only he could see my uniform right now, heh..'

"I have a knife, kid, don't make this—"

Like a shadow boxer, Mark threw a straight-through the air.

"Agh…"

His enemy made an odd choking exhale as his unprepared larynx crumpled under the punch's pressure.

'Shit, I meant to aim for the face.'

He was sent stumbling backward, his torso bent, his arms reached for his throat as he released strained wheezes.

"Now you're out of range man, come back…"

Hunched over, the injured man gripped hard on the handle of his shabby knife, solidifying his determination to gut the unarmed boy as he began to rush back into Mark's 5-meter range.

"Thank you, sir. And goodnight to you."

Mark's attacker growled, his face scrunching with anger as he prepared a forward lunge.

But he couldn't close the distance in time.

A meaty collision of knuckle and jaw reverberated through the noiseless night.

The crook was sent down and limp mid-lunge, his unconscious body crashing heavily onto the stone pavement.

A single well-placed punch ended the fight as quickly as it began.

Mark fixed his sleeves, straightened his uniform blazer, and walked past the unconscious crook.

'Sheesh, wonder what 5 Strength would've done to that guy if 0 Strength was enough to knock him out cold. Systems are scary.'

With his safety relatively secured, Mark focused his sights on the blue portal off into the distance. That was before he gave real thought to his predicament.

'Wait a moment…'

Mark turned around, walking over to the sleeping bum in the middle of the road.

His eyes were squinted and suspicious.

Straddling over him, he began to rummage through the pockets of his pants and coat.

'Bingo. The fruits of my labor.'

A small leather pouch.

Peering into the pouch, Mark could see a solid amount of Silver and Copper. Any amount was good for him now that he was completely broke.

'Alright, now it's really time to grind.'

A nice workout at the gym and a shower seemed perfect right about now.

***

┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐

Destination Confirmed

► Kolzig-Bondra Academy

Please step forward.

└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘

***

Ranni was restless.

It wasn't like she was desperately awaiting school to start; she was no goody two shoes. School was an outlet for her time and energy, and without it, she needed an outlet for the build-up.

'Status,' Ranni thought.

┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐

Name: Ranni Ema Luikots

Age: 18

Race: Human

Class: Warlock (The Mother)

Title: Destiny's Child

[Level: 19] Acolyte

◄ Strength: 2 - ◆─◆─ ◆─ ◆─◇ ►

◄ Vigor: 1 - ◆─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Insight: 2 - ◆─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Dexterity: 1 - ◆─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Intelligence: 4 - ◆─◆─◇─◇─◇►

◄ Arcane: 1 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Faith: 7 - ◆─◆─◆─◇─◇ ►

◄ Charisma: 1 - ◇─◇─◇─◇─◇ ►

◄ Luck: 0 - ◆─◆─◆─◆─◇ ►

◃───***Skills***───▹

Skill: Evisceral Beam → Grade: S

Description: A Skill passed down by the Luikots' blood. An incredible blast of power that eviscerates anything in its path. Can be either wide-ranged or condensed into a smaller but more direct and piercing attack. Eats the mind with each usage. Maximum effective range of 20 meters.

Scales with Faith

◃───***Arts***───▹

Art: Luikots Rapier Style → Mastery: Understood

Description: A graceful sword dance. Excels in duels. A smooth but incredibly deceptive style. Tricks the minds of enemies with feints and false images.

◃───***Affinities***───▹

Light: +50% Efficiency boost to Light spells.

◃───***Items***───▹

Emerald Rapier → Grade: B

└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘

Ranni was incredibly close to becoming an Intermediate, all she needed was another Strength Shard.

And she needed to release some of the baggage weighing on her mind, body, and spirit.

And she knew the perfect place.

…

With a bag of various supplies over her shoulder, Ranni left the Upper Girl's Dormitory.

She held her head high, wearing a stoic and focused demeanor. Tying her hair into a hair ponytail as she walked, the sun acting as a spotlight—Ranni was the star of the show.

There were more stares, students gawking as she passed. But humility was one of the Mother's tenets; she had to act like any other.

On the Southern end of the floating island Academy of Kolzig-Bondra, there were several facilities.

Along with the Dining Hall and Medical Center, there was the Training Complex.

This Training Complex had state-of-the-art equipment, sparring platforms, and extremely valuable utility Items used to help train students in unorthodox but revolutionary means.

But the orthodox way of training was the good old-fashioned Weightroom: Ranni's destination.

As she entered, it was eerily quiet—as if it was empty.

Again, she couldn't help but feel that the student population was incredibly undetermined, lazy, ignorant, or all of the above.

Complacency was a difficult idea for her to relate to. Was the growing threat of Demonic aggression and the crumbling of Humanity's ties with the other races not enough of a warning sign for future conflict?

What were they even doing here? This academy was established to uplift the best of humanity, so they could gain the power and discipline necessary to protect their people from all threats.

More annoyance. But at least she could take it out on the gym.

Setting her things down, she began her warmup stretches. Stretching was vital.

As she began, Ranni could hear the unracking of metal from across the gym.

Turning around, she squinted her eyes, trying to locate the source of the noise through several machines that blocked the path.

Ranni's keen emerald eyes locked on to a somewhat familiar figure.

It was that boy again. Long brown curls, hazel eyes, good looking, and now seemingly in good shape as well.

'A model student. I assume he's highly ranked as well?'

Odd how she had never been aware of such a boy.