Ch. 20

( Haru Pov )

I tried mimicking the ninjas swordmanship, Kenjutsu.

I locked eyes with a ninja and confused him, causing him to lose his balance.

I used this chance to attack the knees and turned my wrist to slash his neck before sending a gust of wind behind me.

I created some distance with the rest, and I held up the sword to block an attack.

With my free hand, I sent a slash of wind cutting the man's stomach.

I atriked palm under his chin and slashed the sword across his neck.

His blood spilled onto my face as I ignored it and turned around to wave my hand to send another wind slash.

' Mana's getting low.' I warned myself as I watched the smoke bombs fill the area with smoke.

I looked around, turning as I tried to listen to the wind.

The wind blew, making the smoke shift to the right.

I dodged an attack before countering, but the ninja managed to retreated back into the smoke.

I waited patiently for them to reveal themselves as I circled around.

A slight breeze brushed my hair as I quickly turned around and slashed the smoke.

Blood escaped the smoke as I heard something fall to the ground.

Assuming it was a body, I continued to observe my surroundings.

The smoke started to fade to reveal no one.

I gripped my sword, waiting for them to show themselves.

Multiple shadows dashed from the shadows and quickly made their way towards me.

I locked eyes with one and managed to confuse them and rushed towards him, and slashed his head and neck before passing by him.

The others followed me and tried to get me into a corner as I quickly pushed them back with a gust of wind.

The ones that managed to dodge attacked as I defended myself by blocking an attack

" Ack!" I exclaimed as I felt a katana plunged into my leg.

I clenched my teeth as I grabbed the ninjas neck. For some odd reason, this gave me an increase in strength as I crushed his throat.

I was a little shook by how easy it was to kill him before a sword cut into my shoulder.

I had ignored the other ninja as his blade reached my collar bone.

I held his blade with my hands and ignored the pain to push him off before cutting his leg and chest.

As he fell to his back, I stabbed the wakizashi into his eye.

I was breathing heavily as I looked at the two remains ninjas who got up from the floor.

I gripped the sword in my hand and waited for them to make a move.

The both of them rushed towards me as I confused the other and rolled under the second ninjas attack before heading towards the first ninja.

The katana stabbed through his neck as I twisted my spirit and slashed the sword behind me, cutting the ninjas head off and blocking the seconds ninjas attack.

I kicked his knee and spun around to stab his chest as he fell to his back.

My body felt sluggish as I realized my stanimna was used up as I started pulling the sword and realizing I couldn't. I started sliding it across his chest up to his heart.

" Haa! Haaa!"

I fell to the floor as the ninja turned to ashes and was left alone in the warehouse.

The portal appeared again, but this time, no more ninjas as it calmly floated in the air.

" Well, it's a pleasure to see you again."

Tilted my head to see the rabbit merchant again.

" Rabbiton?" I looked at him in confusion.

" Why I am here you're asking? Well, it has to do with this open dungeon."

" You see that that portal is overfill with mana, which the dungeon can't handle, so it..."

" It causes enemies to escape the dungeon." I finished.

Rabbiton nodded as he seemed pleased to hear my understanding.

" Exactly! So now, all you have to do is destroy the dungeon by ripping out the dungeon core. "

" Does that mean I'll have to face the enemies inside the dungeon?"

" Oh no, my dear boy, matter in fact, the dungeon has created open space as jts dungeon all you have to do is reach inside."

He explained as I stood up and walked to the portal.

Hesitantly, I reached inside to grab it.

I brought out a red crystal ball that has spikes sticking out.

" Is this it?" I asked the rabbit who nodded.

" Yup! And... you can infact trade it as well." He replied as a panel popped in front of me.

It was the trading panel.

I gave the core to the rabbit, who put it into his top hat.

I looked at the SP I received and started browsing the panel.

A few schematics, items, weapons, and charms.

I spotted a few schematics.

But I spotted an item.

[ Sunglasses ]

( hides the users' intent and increases the users magic eye by 5% )

" Ohohoho! Like it? I thought so." The rabbit laughed before speaking again.

" I also noticed your attribute with the wind element, might I suggest a grimore?" He suggested.

I looked at him before scrolling downwards to the grimores.

It's mostly grkmores of the wind element.

' He must've gotten these specifically for me...' I thought as j looked at the cheapest grimore.

But they were expensive as I scrolled past them.

" Hmm... too much. Then I suggest a mana training manual." Rabbiton spoke as the panel changed.

These were training manuals.

[ Mana bullet ]

[ Cost: 1,500 Sp ]

" I'll take this one." I pointed at the panel as the rabbit took off his hat and reached inside to reveal a manual.

" Here you go." He handed me the manual as I started searching again.

" And this as well." I said, pointing at the pair of gloves.

" Hmhm, a anything else?" He asked.

" No. That'll be it." I replied as I took the pair of gloves from him.

" Well then, I'll be seeing you." He bowed before leaving.

' I shouldn't stay here any longer.' I thought as I escaped this place after picking up the swords that were dropped from the ninjas.

" Hm?" But as I picked up the loot, I picked up a kunai.

" A kunai? Never saw them use these..." I muttered before shrugging and throwing it into my inventory.

I put on my new gloves as I got a feel to it. The gloves were made from leather.

[ ManaWeaver's grasp ]

( Saves 5% mana usage. )

This was good as I left the warehouse.

The sun was setting as I realized I needed to head home immediately.

A few minutes later, I arrived back at home as i snuck through the window and took a shower, cleaning the blood off of my body and putting my dirty clothes into the inventory.

After taking a shower, I covered my wounds with a few bandages and bandaid.

My body feels a little sore as I exited the room to see Gramls sleeping on the couch.

Ignoring the old man, I went to warm up some food in the microwave.

I was actually on the table as I brought up the system panel.

[ Congratulations! You've been awarded the anti-hero title. ]

[ The anti-hero fact has granted you passive skill: Shades of Morality. ]

[ Shades Of morality ]

( Gives the user attack bonuses and protection from both Hero and Villian factions. )

[ Hero: 0% ]

[ Villian: 0% ]

' Maybe I should've chosen this from the start.' I thought as I took a bite.

I looked at my gloves and noticed how easier it was to move my hand around.

Everything I saw my hand, it reminds me of the blood that was spilled by it.

So, I had gloves that didn't dirty my surroundings and everything I touched.

' I should've leveled up as well.' I thought as I clicked my status.

[ Level up! ]

[ Level 10 -> 11 ]

[ You've been awarded: 1 Stat Point; 2 skill points and 1 class upgrade token.]

" Hm?"

' Class upgrade token?' I accepted the award and held the green token in my hand.

[ Do you wish to upgrade your Mage class? ]

' Sure.' I replied as the token disappeared.

[ Ding! Wing novice -> Aeromancer ]

[ Class: Mage; Aeromancer]

[ Boosted effects: +5% damage increase for all wind base attacks. ]

[ Strength 3 -> 4 ]

[ Wind slash 8 -> 9 ]

I used two skill points for wind dash and one for strength.

As I had grown older, it seemed my strength increased on it sown though it took a few years to do so.

I could've waited for it to increase in the future, but since I'm going to be training and dungeon runs in the future, I'll need everything I can.

' And there's that...' I thought as I looked at the magazine on the table.

An engineering magazine that showed the opening of I-Island.

A competition of engineers, geniuses, and investors of all ages from across the globe comes together to compete.

And those that made it to the top 50 would have their invention on display and would be awarded with cash.

I need that cash and the connections with David Shield if I even managed to catch his attention.

But how do I even get the money to start my creations.

I was in deep thought until I heard singing behind me.

I looked at the TV to see an idol group singing.

" Yeah... I'm not singing." I muttered as I shook my head at that idea and stared at the magazine.

. . .

It didn't take long for an agency to reply to my application.