Time To Think

You find yourself in a black room that seemingly never ends. The only thing in the room is a wooden chair with a man sitting in it. The man is wearing a black cloak and hood covering his face.

From the size and posture, it can be easily assumed this man is Akari. But there's something off about him; he seems a bit different than normal. It would be advised to keep the comments low when speaking to him…

Suddenly the man looks as If he's about to speak.

"You know I feel like I went a tad too far. I mean truly, this is what I'll have to do If he wants to become the "strongest". It's absolutely necessary to be as serious as possible when concerning this subject."

"Fighting stronger and more numerous enemies shall become much more prominent. I don't think he truly realized how much of a task it is to become the "Strongest" but I'll try my best. "

"For now, though, he may be too soft mentally and physically. Don't tell him that though, he may get mad and take it up with some slimes. Haha, that's a little joke I've learned from interacting with him so much."

"Right now he's sleeping so it's not like he can hear me."

"Hmm? You want to know who I am? Well well well is that thethe mysterious voice I hear? It's nice that you've come and joined a little chat with me."

"To answer your question, of which is quite stupid, I'm of course Akari. Or well the Akari that has helped him so many times before…"

"I feel like the more important question is who are you? He might play it off as a joke but let's say I'm particularly interested in who you are. Maybe it's an anomaly with the brain. Possibly a spirit? A curse? Honestly, it could be anything in a world like this."

"So I'll ask one more time."

"Who are you?"

<Who are you?>

…

"No reply? Kinda expected not going to lie. I guess I'll have to persuade myself to look for answers then. Maybe then we might be able to get rid of whatever "this is". It's really annoying and should be thrown away as quickly as possible."

"An anomaly like this shouldn't have appeared in the first place. It's very possible you may straw Akari off course which I of course can't have. Because of this, I will try to find a way to erase you forever."

"NO? You don't want to be erased? Huh, you definitely have some odd moments when you decide to speak…"

"Well anyway, I wish I could talk longer but I feel as If he's not going to be asleep for much longer."

"See you later then."

"H~e~y"

"He~y"

"HEY!"

Startled, I sit up on the comfy bed I was sleeping on.

"Ugh, yea?" I replied sloppily.

"So do you got the money or what?" I hear a familiar female voice next to me.

Money? What are you a loan shark? Oh, right, the money.

Reaching Into my pocket I feel the silvery metallic of two coins. I pull them out and give them to Ren. In turn Ren staches the two coins from my hand.

"Two uhh coins? Your only giving me two?"

Hey, come on, business has been a bit slow as of late. I attempt to forget about her by covering myself with the blanket but I know she won't leave until I reassure her.

"I'll get more next week"

"Well, whatever when I come back though we're going to talk about why your allways bleeding half to death in the hallway."

I wasn't even able to make it to my bed again… Which is confusing since I'm in one right now. Just by a quick glance, I'm pretty sure it's not the underground room. Did she?

"Don't get the wrong Idea my friend found you and helped you into a bed." She says as she closes the door.

Ohh ok that's fine then. At first, I just thought Ren was being nice… Wait a minute did she say, friend? Since when did she have a friend?! I wish I could question her about it but she already left. Maybe I can catch up with her before she leaves

I attempt to get up out of the bed but my body refuses to move instead making me feel pain, basically everywhere.

"Ouch ouch, what the heck," I say painfully

I guess my wounds have caught back up with me. Damn this regen skill must be really slow because my body still feels really bad. Damn, I guess I'll have to stay in this bed for a little while longer. Not that I'm complaining though.

I'm still really tired anyway. I got no problem going right back to bed. Maybe this time laying down might also give me some time to think.

If you wanna go do something go check what Rens doing. Hah like that's even possible.

<Rens POV>

Damn Akari better not be bluffing. I bet he just wanted to get me out of the house, so annoying. I know Marissa already said that they were worth at least 20 bucks so I guess it must be worth something.

I don't even know what to get, I think personally we could only get some bread and rice, and here I was thinking I could actually get something for myself.

I sigh and put the 2 coins in my pocket. It's been getting a bit chilly lately, and the sky is getting cloudy, I think it might rain soon.

"What's with that long face?" Marissa comes up next to me and looks genuinely worried for me.

"Nothing, I'm just a bit disappointed," I respond back looking at her with a more bored expression

"Disappointed about what?"

"I kinda wanted to get something for myself"

"Well how many coins do you have"

"Two silver coins"

"Oh you will have enough for groceries and a little trinket for you or your older brother"

"Uh-huh," I guess this town is poor as shit.

A bit of time passes and we're at a vendor trying to see what bread to get. I just grab the white bread and pay. I just want to get out of this crowded town.

"I did it! I finally found it!"

Startled, I turned to where the voice was heard and see a man in ragged clothing waving a book around. The man reminds me of the crazy people that would say the world was going to end tomorrow. He had that type of feeling.

Wanting to discuss the crazy-looking man with Marissa I turn to her to see her recession but instead, she's looking completely away from him. Looking around some more it seems everyone is either looking away or having their head down.

Slowly, I see the guards take the man as he continues to yell like a maniac. What interested me however Is when the book he was holding comes flying out of his hands.

I wonder what had been in this book he would yell his top off for. So I wait for when the guards fully detain the man and drag him away. That's when I slowly pass through the crowd until I reach the spot where the man's book fell.

I picked up the book that fell when the guards were handling the crazy guy. I don't really have time to see what it looks like before Marissa comes up behind me.

"What'd you find?" Marissa asked

"Nothing, thought I saw something but I guess didn't, lets go drop these groceries off"

"Alright!" Marissa says with an upbeat attitude.

(Akari's POV)

Slime Slayer. Passive. A job for those that have an expertise in eliminating slimes. Effect, faster stat gains while killing slims. No other effects.

"Nope"

BookWorm. Passive. A Title for those having extra time to spend reading all day. Effects Faster reading and understanding of books. Increased intelligent stat by 5. No other effects

"Not that ether"

PersistenceST1 (???)

"And of course, this one doesn't even have a description shoulda known."

Hmm? I suddenly hear a voice and instinctively turn around to see nothing. Suddenly I realize it's the voice I can sometimes hear in my head. When I say it like that it really does seem like I'm crazy...

Anyway, it's nice to see you back. I can't actually tell if you left or not since you don't talk very often. Anyway, right now I'm just investing gatting some of my skills. That's basically how I figured out how to use some of them in the first place.

Welp anyway I hit a dead end so might as well take a break. Which is funny cause I originally wanted to leave to kill some slimes. But when I woke up at my normal sleep schedule in the middle of the night I found out it was raining.

So now I'm in the alleyways wandering around. I don't really want to get wet and the roofs save me from that so I don't see why not.

I was kinda hoping there was something other than slimes I could kill. The first thing that comes to mind is some goblins and skeletons. I also bet killing them would increase my stats faster so maybe I'll be able to win against that… old man…

Ahh I just got reminded of my embarrassing defeat against him. Are all people this strong here? If I remember my stats when I came here I had stats of 10 15 10 20 and seeing how I was almost at my prime I can only imagine the default stats for an adult male would be 20…

Maybe that means people here have higher overall stats? Or maybe that guy isn't the average adult. Still, I should have at least seen him throw a punch.

"Ahhh this whole thing is just so annoying can't I just hurry and become stronger already?!"

Suddenly I hear some rustling of metal and other junk around a corner in the alleyway. I must have startled someone, whoops.

Wanting to check who I scared but being a bit scared myself I peek my head around the corner to see who it is but also making a retreat very easy. Sure enough, there is a person on the other side.

Normally I don't even see poor people out in the always it's so erry. I'm not so hyped about seeing another person however so I'm just going to let them continue their trash collecting. That was until of course.

No way. Am I seeing things? On top of the person's head and… I- can't believe it. To quench my curiosity I find the one use I think I can use for a useless skill.

"Appraisal!"

<"Appraisal successful">

<"Feline hybrid">

The word hybrid is kinda throwing me off but I can just count that as some strange lingo. I know what I saw and the "Felline" part definitely strengthens my argument.

I just saw a catgirl.

It's too bad when I shouted Aprassel they sprinted in the opposite direction of me and totally ran out of sight...