Reaping in the rewards

Akio blinked my eyes open from the forced slumber. He sat up still tired from the nap. It was as if he never had slept in the first place and had taken a run instead.

Using the bed as a cushion, Akio pushes upwards from his bed. Taking a look around his room he saw that time had barely even passed. He stood up from the messed up sheets as he opened his system menu once again.

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Grade advancement successful!

rewards:

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Akio looked at the black rewards section without much pleasure. But he ignored it and moved on.

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Level up!

50 -> 62

All stats up 36

Free status points 36

Blessing of verglas: 60 status points.

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"well then, that's some progress." he said to himself as he nodded. While he was progressing rather quickly, he noticed that around him he was still considered on the weaker end. Moving on he turned to the small dresser with a mirror on top provided with the room.

He was a little bit taller now, but not by much. his shoulders grew more broad as they spanned out a greater length than they did before. His overall build gave more of a fighter now than an assassin. But he didn't let that bother him, he was going to stay with what he did best.

He looked back to the floating blue screen with a little bit more seriousness.

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New Spell!

Ice Gaze (lvl1) - allows the user to gaze into ones soul, freezing them in place. the effect can range from a couple of milliseconds to decades if used well.

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'Well, this will be really handy' He recalled a guard standing still in front of the wolf for an extended period of time. Maybe that is what this was.

Akio scrolled past a couple of messages until he landed on the items acquired tab.

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Items acquired!:

bear pelt x 15

bear claw x 21

wolf pelt x 18

ice wolf pelt x 2

wolf claws x 32

boar pelt x 12

boar tusks x 2

common orb x 3

ice orb x 1

gray orb x 13

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the list of items spanned across his retina, causing a massive headache to ensue.

"Ugh, I'm going to sell all of these immediately once I get out of bed tomorrow" He said to himself as he sat down on the bed to get back to sleep.

Opening my eyes I looked out the window to see that the sun hadn't poked out of the horizon. The alarm hasn't rang out. which means i'm up early, i sat up scratching my eyes to wash some of the tiredness away. Hopping out of bed i grabbed my gear and head out early without breakfast, hoping the general will allow me to fight this fat nobles family.

Everything was a lot quieter than it normally was, making me uncomfortable walking down the streets. Even late at night there were some people laughing after getting drunk at a late night bar.

turning left once more into the clearing I saw the grand knight hall, Thinking that this is where we are going to meet most mornings. Approaching the door I heard a voice call behind me.

"you're here early, you're Akio right?" i turned around to see Fuyoko walking in full uniform.

"Uhh... Yea thats me. I was wondering if it was possible to leave early from training." i replied in an earnest tone.

She frowned at the comment.

"depends on why. but I'll let you know I'm very strict on attendance, so unless its something big or interesting it's not going to happen."

I sighed.

I personally don't think that this fight is going to be too interesting. To fight a 1 v 3 against a powerful noble family, sure it will be very fun for me and the people watching when I win. But it holds very minimal interest other than entertainment.

"One of my….friends? Got in a fight with a noble, and apparently she beat the crap out of him. So the family challenges ours to a brawl. Apparently Fighting is only taught by teachers for nobles, so they thought we were another large family. But i'm the only fighter, so i will be fighting a 1 v 3 against them at 10 today"

"Oh? What family is this so-called noble from?" she asked as she walked forward towards the door.

"The Pierce family." I responded to her question as I followed close behind her.

She stopped in her tracks, causing me to collide with her. She didn't move as I recoiled from the impact. The power systems can give is absolute insanity.

"Follow me." she said as she walked into the door leading to the courtyard.

She walked towards the middle and turned around, telling me she wanted to show me something.

"The pierce family is a family that heavily relies on their own sword prowess. Meaning that all you have to do is find a way to counter the sword. The sword has one main opening for assassins. The recoil." She points a small sword at me.

"I want you to try and get my sword to recoil back, allowing you to hit me as your dagger has less recoil." She continued.

I nodded as I started to run forward as fast as I could. Reaching her quickly, she showed no reaction as I swung my dagger towards her sword. The strike landed in the middle of her sword, where it bounced back as she followed its momentum. I followed up with trying to strike her but I was stopped by her sword.

"Not bad, good intuition. However, you need to hit a little higher. Most of the weight is directed on the hilt of the blade, hitting near the top allows you to cause the sword to vibrate making their hand numb. The other effect of it is that it has less pressure there, allowing you to push the sword back more or to the sides. The Pierce family doesn't focus on wrist strength, they focus more on power and speed of the swings." She rambled as I returned to my original position.

"Assuming you're fighting someone your own level right?" I nodded to her question.

"Good, now try again."

This continued for a while as I learned more about how to turn and move with a dagger, hit more vital spots to weaken the opponent and as well as where to hit various weapons.

I sat there panting in the side of the small courtyard, and she nodded at me.

"Well done, okay you should go and get ready. You need to eat and stretch a little bit." She said she wasn't sweating at all and her hair was barely messed up.

I grinned as I bowed in thanks. I couldn't manage another 5 minutes of fighting against that monster in women's clothing.The other knights seemed to have started to arrive as I looked over at the door. I nodded to them as I left the courtyard. I started to walk towards the small stadium apparently owned by the Pierce family to hold auditions for their tournament. Which I had no intentions of participating in.

The walk didn't take long as thankfully the Pierce family lived in the southern part of the giant city. The stadium was lined with flags with the Pierce family logo, which was just a sword surrounded by flames.

'How original, looks like a child drew it' I commented to myself as I walked up to the door. The door was a giant wooden door kind of like the one at the knights hall, it was guarded by two people in armor. Kind of like the ones given to us as we were hired as knights. But more bland. I walked up towards the giant coliseum with confidence. The two guards stopped me and asked who I was.

"I'm Akio, the guy who was told I would be fighting here." I responded

"You mean the 3 v 3 happening today?" they asked.

"Yea, it seems as though there was a misunderstanding. We aren't a noble family, just some people who moved in recently. So there won't be three people, just me. Although since a little girl seemed to beat up one of your heirs, i'm not too sure it will be an even fight even if it was a 1 v 3.`` I continued snarkily.

They stared at me with surprise and a little bit of respect, if I was able to insult a giant family like that. I had to be at least half decent. They nodded as they let me into the door. The inside of the building was huge, I could barely see the ceiling as I walked up to a lady sitting behind a desk, snoring off.

"Hey, i'm here for the fight later today.'' I said as I approached.

"Huh?" she snapped her head off her desk as she realized someone was here.

"OH, please state the names of the fighters and their level so we can find someone of equal power." she rambled off a piece of paper, she took out a pen halfway through.

"Uhmm… Akio Sano, and it's just me. I'm level 62." I told her as I looked at my menu to get my level.

She looked at me in shock and in a little bit of anger.

"You think that the Pierce family is only worthy of one person to fight three of ours!? WHat kind of noble family has their most powerful person be a level 62 nonetheless?" she angrily rebutted me.

"That's the thing, we aren't a noble family. Isn't it embarrassing that a little girl without training beat up your fat heir?" I threw an insult right back at her. I'm not too patient with much of anything.

"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!" She screamed back, I couldn't care less who he was. It could be the king's son for all I care, I hadn't met the king and i didnt grow up worshiping him either.

"No idea" I shrugged as I walked off to a nearby bench.

"Call me when they are ready." I waved back at her when I sat down. Her beet red face showed an immense amount of annoyance.

'Welp, time too wait a bit' i thought as i sat down on the bench waiting for the fight to begin