Unexpected Encounter

In an secluded back alley, all was quiet except with the occasional mice scurrying around. That is, until the air started to become distorted.

*Swoosh!*

A blue portal manifested seemingly out of nowhere, emanating a small torrent of raging mana before spitting a certain teen dressed in black out before shortly closing.

*Thud*

"Ugh, my head…"

I groaned as I tried to ignore the nauseating sensations that attacked my body while getting up. As my mind was almost fully cleared, I began to observe my surroundings.

A narrow, generic back-alley littered with trash. I have no idea where I currently am.

'Where am I?'

The last thing I remember as I was being sent flying was Alistar saying goodbye.

I stood still in contemplation.

'Why did he send me away? Was there danger approaching back then?'

Something or someone had found the location of the dungeon and Alistar couldn't handle it, so he had to send me out before it arrived. That was my best guess. There were others, but they were highly unlikely to be correct.

I sighed thinking about what could possibly have happened to Alistar. I didn't have a close attachment to him but from what I could tell from the time spent together, he wasn't a bad guy and he also trained me which I was grateful for. It was a shame about [Mirage Steps], but that was fine. I just hope that he is able to rest in peace now.

I shook my head to break that train of thoughts. I could ponder about it later, but I now need to focus on my next move.

Because my training was cut short, I didn't have the chance to learn [Mirage Steps]. Despite that loss, however, I had gained quite a bit.

About a week has passed since I woke up in this world and trained under Alistar. Even though it was a short time, the time spent should've bridged a big portion of the gap between myself and a few certain people at the academy.

I tried bringing up my status.

'Status'

[ERROR. CONNECTION DISRUPTED.]

Hm? Guess I still haven't reconnected already.

[ATTEMPTING TO RECONNECT TO THE ******* *******.]

[CONNECTION RECONNECTED. NOTICE: STATUS CHANGE FROM LAST KNOWN CONNECTION.]

Ah, there we go. Now, let's see how much I've imp-

[ALERT: CONNECTION TO THE CODEX HAS BEEN RE-ESTABLISHED. CHECK END OF STATUS FOR MORE DETAILS.]

'…what?'

Another system notification popped up, but instead of it being the usual cyan blue like the rest, it was yellow. And while I recognized what I was connected to, I was extremely confused.

Temporarily swallowing my confusion and questions, I checked my status.

-[Status]-

[Name]: Rick Astler

[Age]: 18 Years Old

[Rank]: G+

[Offensive Ability]: ★★☆☆☆

[Defensive Ability]: ★★☆☆☆

[Speed Ability]: ★★★☆☆

[Survivability]: ★★★☆☆

[Strength]: G

[Agility]: E-

[Endurance]: F-

[Dexterity]: F-

[Stamina]: F+

[Intelligence]: G+

[Mana]: G+

[Luck]: G+ (Where in the fucking world did you go? The ********* was on my ass. You better not do that again. Fixed the display glitch on your luck, told ya you shouldn't get overconfident.-Administrator M)

[Charisma]: F

-[Profession]-

[Distraction Lv. 5]:

[Dagger Lv. 3] (New)

[Swordsmanship (Rapier) Lv. 1] (New)

-[Skills]-

[Dancing - Rank F] (Passive)

[Singing - Rank F] (Activated)

['Nigerundayo' - Rank D] (Conditional)

-[Arts]-

[Flash Steps] (New)

Type: Movement Art (Body Arts)

Stars: ★★★

Brief Summary: a movement Art that allows the user to move at fast speeds in a short/brief moment. This Art is usually used to catch your opponent off guard with a sudden burst of speed.

[Fatal Strike] (New)

Type: Weapon Art (Dagger)

Stars: ★★★

Brief Summary: a simple but effective dagger Art that while the user can string each movement together for a more coherent and devastating attacks, each movement can be a fatal strike.

[Shadow Cloak] (New)

Type: Body Art (Stealth)

Stars: ★★★

Brief Summary: A stealth Art that can moderately hide your appearance and presence. With this Art, you will be able to move around with no one noticing you with enough mastery. Note: this doesn't make you truly invisible.

[Lightning Flash] (New)

Type: Weapon Art (Rapier)

Stars: ★★★

Brief Summary: A basic sword Art that has been modified. In return for a increase in mana consumption and compatibility issue with other types of swords, its speed and piercing power has been enhanced.

-[End of Status]-

I— wow. With just a week of training under Alistar, my strength has jumped from 'G-' to 'G', and my mana from 'G-' to 'G+'. Not only that, my rank had risen to G+. No other stat increase though, which was pretty understandable.

As a joke character, it would make sense having high agility, stamina, and endurance for his age in a novel to survive all the comedic things happening to them in a novel, but in real life? I think I'm a tad bit overpowered for my age now.

Rank wise, I'm definitely on the lower scale of the Central Gap Academy for first years as the average rank was F, but for any other institution? I would be welcomed as one of the top students.

The me before meeting Alistar would only be able to run and endure at the Academy, but now? I could actually defend myself and fight back against most of the first-years at the Academy.

Not only that, I have four three-star Arts. Normally, someone in my situation would be extremely lucky to have even a single one, let alone three due to how expensive and regulated they were.

Because of how powerful most Arts are, the guilds put strict regulations into place not only to congregate their power, but also to prevent

demon contractors, people who betrayed humanity, and others from getting their hands on them.

Not only that, the Arts given to me by Alistar were most likely on higher-end of three stars, making them even more valuable. If asked for an estimate, I would guess that they would be worth around 10 million Alliance Credits each, or 10 million dollars back in my last world.

After I was done admiring my new status, I looked to the bottom of it like the notification said where it was, and noticed the new option in a yellow rectangular box.

-[Codex]-

I had my doubts about it, but I swallowed them as I was intending to try and get answers. That is, until I heard something nearby.

*Rustle.*

Immediately summoning both of the daggers from my storage ring, I got into a ready stance while watching the corner into another alley where the noise originated from. It didn't sound like a person's footsteps, that's for sure.

*Rustle, rustle.*

Tense, I was prepared to attack if necessary.

A small, furry and dirty animal, the size around a mature corgi or shih tzu came staggering out another alley and fell onto the ground, not far from me.

When it looked up at me, small animal flinched.

Startled, it tried to get up and run away but apparently it was too weak to do so.

"Woo…"

The animal let out whimper when it couldn't run.

Seeing the small animal, I let part of my guard go down but not entirely. It wasn't a normal animal, but a mana beast. When mana was introduced to the world, the animals adapted to it and evolved just like humans did. Some just had an increase in life-span like common household pets while others could do much more. The effects of mana varied from species to species and individuals.

I wasn't sure of which the small animal in front of me was. It was definitely young, that I could tell. But it could be a smart monster acting weak and pitiful to lure me into dropping my guard to go for the kill. That thought appeared in mind before I saw it's eyes and thought otherwise.

It's body was shivering, no doubt afraid of me. But at the same time being contradicting, it's eyes were begging for help, full of hope that I would do something to help.

I recognized that plea for help. I had seen it a lot, especially when I was at the orphanage still with my siblings.

We weren't blood related of course, but that didn't stop me from treating them as such.

I was the oldest among my brothers and sisters there at the time, and if something had happened, I would be the one expected to help with whatever happened. Everyone one of them looked up to me as the oldest, the rest being a year or two younger than me. That was how I landed myself in the position of big brother.

Especially when new kids arrived at the orphanage, or abandoned, and wear weak and starving. Their small bodies, shaking in fear of what was going to happen to them from now on, but their eyes hoping that everything would be fine. Hoping that someone would help take care of them. I ended up usually being that someone one way or another.

Those eyes that were asking for help overlapped in my mind with the eyes of my younger siblings from the orphanage. I couldn't resist them.

I sighed.

'Even after all these years, that part of me still hasn't faded away, I guess.

Making up my mind, I decided to help the animal.

I tried slowly approaching the animal in an effort to not startle or appear threatening to it, but it was still wary of me.

"Grrrrrr…"

"It's alright, I don't mean you any harm."

I didn't know if it could understand human speech, but I tried gently talking to it to calm it down.

"Grrrrr…"

But the animal still growled at me.

'That didn't work, what about if I do this?'

I made the daggers in my hand go into my storage ring and showed that I had nothing in them anymore.

The animal stopped growling at me, visibly more relaxed than earlier but still was tense.

However, I was finally able to approach and got a better look at it as I got closer.

I couldn't see what animal it was due the poor lighting in the alley earlier, but now that I was closer, I could roughly guess what it was.

'With ears and a tail like that, I'd say it's some type of fox.'

As I got less than a foot away from it, I knelt down to gently soothe it with a couple of pets.

"There there. See? Nothing to worry about."

I think I spent about five minutes of gently petting and soothing the fox before I was confident it would let me pick it up.

"Well, time to go."

And after saying that, I picked up the fox and gently but also firmly held it against my chest.

The fox let out a small yelp, but seemed to have accepted the situation, as it soon fell asleep in my arms with its head resting along my chest.

'Poor fellow…'

I thought while gently rubbing the top of its head with my chin.

And with successfully convincing the fox to let me take it, I started walking to find a street I could call a ride from.