Chapter 3: I Can Steal Anything!

After the call with his best friend, Aiden felt more relaxed. The worries he had before lessened allowing him to focus on the situation at hand.

Aiden clenched the Steal Runestone in his pocket. "There's no point lamenting on what I got. I just need to focus on what I can do with the things I have."

"I already have the Steal Talent but why did I get a reproduction rune? It's possible that this is a beginner item that would guide me on how to activate or use runestones."

"No. The most probable reason is to show that everything that's happening is real."

"Since I already mastered the skill, I don't need to use the reproduction runes. But what's the difference between using the runestone and the talent itself?"

Aiden tried to remember his earlier experience and couldn't find an answer.

"There's no other way to know but to use it then. But what should I steal? There's barely anything here that I can steal."

Aiden looked on the window, the pair was still clawing at him. He looked below and saw the mob of monsters staring at jumping at him. He turned to the side and stared at the brittle-looking plastic pipes.

"I do have Senior Acrobatics but I don't think that will help me reach the top without falling down. My other skills doesn't really help me in this situation."

Sprint can help widen the gap when being chased while Stealth can help sneak through unpopulated areas. Lie can't really do anything to the enemy since they don't seem to be in the mood to talk.

"If I just have a weapon to fight them... or throw at them."

Aiden kept looking for things he could use when a commotion started on the field.

Someone was running across the campus field being chased by hundreds of soul eaters.

Upon closer look, Aiden figured out who the courageous person was. It was the track and field captain, Rudy Mercer.

Rudy Mercer had a slender physique appropriate for athletes. His limbs were long and had strong muscles to support his weight. As the captain of the track and field team, his foundation was solid and he had proper breathing technique.

Aiden watched the show. "It seems like he got a running-related talent. Is that the fastest he can go? How long can he keep running at that speed?"

Rudy Mercer zigzagged several times on the field and easily made a single lap around the campus. He attracted a huge number of soul eaters who eagerly left their idle states and chased for food.

"What is he doing? He'll get cornered like that!"

Before the soul eaters could fully tighten up, Rudy turned and ran to the eastern gate. He chose a direction with more visible gaps and weaved through the crowd without slowing down.

Rudy successfully run out of the campus' gates and escaped this hellhole bringing most of the wandering soul eaters.

Though he doesn't know what's outside the campus, Aiden couldn't help but feel envious if the man since being able to escape is way better than being stuck on a ledge.

"Goodluck to you. I hope you atleast remember to send help this way if you ever encounter the authorities."

Aiden was praying for the lucky one who escaped, then saw a figure climbing the campus' wall from the outside.

As if rushing, the figure hastily rolled into campus premise by pushing his body in. The figure managed to land on his feet but he started limping after taking a few steps forward. It seems like the man didn't get a solid landing when jumping off the wall.

"Why did you come back?!" Aiden exclaimed internally.

Rudy limped his way towards the eastern gate. By the time he reached the gate's entrance, the idlers that got left behind from the chase finally noticed him. Not only that, several figures also appeared from outside and tried to enter the gate.

Rudy slammed the gates on their face and locked it. After making sure everything was set, he power-limped his way to the sidewalk that leads to the storage room in the back of the buildings.

Aiden couldn't see him anymore but the reality of things finally struck him.

Rudy wasn't trying to run away! He was trying to save the campus!

By luring most of the active soul eaters out of the campus and securing the eastern gate, they have a better chance of surviving since the hostile enemies are much fewer in numbers.

"But we still have the western gate!"

Aiden hurriedly glanced at the western gate. Only a small number of soul eaters were there forming small groups of two's and three's.

"Alright, it seems like Rudy was successful in luring a lot of them out of the campus. If we can close the western gate, the number of enemies will only decrease and not increase. Just make sure that no one dies and turns."

"Hahaha!" Aiden couldn't help but laugh at himself. "Look at me being calculative here when I can't even resolve my situation."

"Stop! thinking! negatively! Even a simple skill like running was useful. I'm sure that my skills has uses too, I just haven't figured them out!"

"Acrobatics can be used to dodge, climb and perform agile movements. I can use that to climb up or down this pipe. If I go up, there's a very huge chance of falling down to my death."

"However, if I chose to climb down slowly, I can control the speed and power of the descent. I just need to fight a couple of those suckers at the same time."

Aiden went through his skills once more but with more vigor and went into more details on how he can use them to survive.

After going through them all, he finally ended up on his only talent, steal.

"Steal(Master): Consume 0.5 energy to steal anything from a ten meter radius. The user needs to know the targets basic information for the skill to succeed."

Aiden felt confused. "Why is it different from the runestone? There's almost half a world of difference!"

It didn't take long for the answer to reveal itself. It's the difference in quality!

The reproduction runestone was only a copy of the talent. The difference between the fake and the original was too wide! The stealing distance increased by two times while the requirements can be considered to be none. Even the energy consumed was reduced by half!

"Hey, you really mean it when you say anything, right?" Aiden said trying to assure himself. He pocketed the reproduction steal rune and raised his hand at the bleeding girl at the window.

"Don't disappoint me! Steal!"

Aiden stared at the target filled with expectations. He wanted to copy what soul eaters always do to their victims, steal their souls! The white mist flowing in the human body that they would die for.

The two girls at the window continued clawing and growling at him like nothing happened. There was no pause as if what he did didn't happen.

Seconds passed and he finally accepted the result.

It didn't work!

Aiden felt conflicted inside.

Did he misunderstood the skill? Or did he fail to achieve one of the conditions?

The description was straightforward and simple, so it's probably the latter.

You need to have the basic information of the target.

Aiden contemplated. "What's a soul? An ethereal part of a human body?"

Aiden used the talent again but just like the last time it didn't even activate.

"I guess I really don't understand a single thing about souls."

At the moment, Aiden only had guesses and clues to what might be the soul. He's not even sure if he can figure it out or if he could copy what the soul eaters do, would he even benefit from it?

Aiden only knew one thing. "I can steal anything!"

He turned and glared at the soul eaters at the window.

"I'm tired of you two lusting after me. Someone said that the eyes was the window to the soul. Let's rip it out and hope we get closer to knowing it. Steal, steal, steal, steal!"

Aiden confirmed the energy consumption and knew the talent actually worked this time.

A second later, four greasy eyeballs appeared on his palm. Dark blood trickled down through the gaps of his fingers due to the bloodied nerves.

The girls at the window suddenly shrieked loudly as their eyes disappeared from their sockets. Without eyes, the two girls clutched their heads causing them to take a few steps back into the room. After recovering from the pain, they charged at the wall where Aiden was supposed to be located on the other side.

Aiden felt the rhythmic pounding coming from the other side of the wall. Knowing that he dealt huge damage to the targets, he hesitantly made his way back to the window.

For some reason, the wall pounding followed him which confirmed his guess, the soul eaters could sense where he is.

If Aiden can be bold, he would claim that the soul eaters can feel his soul.

On the last stretch of the window, he dived inside and barely dodged several grabs from the blind soul eaters.

Excited for almost catching a prey, the two soul eaters became vigorous and rushed towards him at a speed he couldn't react to!

The soul eaters were diving st him before he could recover. He rolled to the side and successfully dodged the attack but the two managed to latch onto his legs.

"Damn it! Let go! I won't die like this!"

Think!

"Eyes, already gone! Nose, it won't kill them!

Brain! What do I know about the brain?"

Aiden tried to come up with an answer but every second he wasted, the more likely he would get eaten.

Speaking of which, one of the soul eaters couldn't wait anymore and started biting his shoes.

Pull the brain out? No!

Stab the brain? YES!!!

Aiden activated steal twice and two items appeared on his hand, a scissor and a pencil.

"One thing I know about brains, they're soft and fragile!"

Squirt! Squirt!