The Plan (1) - 23

One Week Prior:

After I left room 221, I immediately ran towards the teleportation center.

To explain, teleportation centers were places that had had powerful space magic spells engraved into them by the great heros during the war.

But, when they all died, the didn't pass on the knowledge of how to create them to the next generation, so we could only use the existing ones by having a space mage inject their mana into them.

Now, you might be wondering, why don't we just use these an a regular basis.

Well, you see, the only reason that people didn't use teleportation centers on a daily basis was due to the huge mana consumption that one teleport expended, resulting in a really high cost for just one teleportation.

Although I was getting a round trip ticket for free, as it was included in the deal that I had just made with Xion.

"To Cavil."

A magician whose face was shrouded by his cloak waved a hand and I dematerialized.

It felt as if my entire body had been ripped into tiny pieces before all coming back together.

A second later, I rematerialized in the teleportation center in Cavil.

I almost puked on the floor when I arrived, as the process of teleportation really scrambled a person's senses, to the point where they felt as if they were being pulled in all directions, while simultaneously being imploded and exploded, over and over again.

'So that's what space magic feels like.' I thought as I spat in a puke bucket that was already there in front of me when I arrived.

I left the teleportation center and headed for the outskirts of the city, towards the royal palace.

And although it was called the "outskirts" of the city, it was the richest part, as the closer you got to the palace, the bigger and better the mansions surrounding it were, occupied by increasingly powerful nobles.

It went on like this until I reached the gates of the fence surrounding the moat, surrounding the forest, surrounding the walls, surrounding the palace of the empress.

"Hey kid, move or we'll have to take you in as a suspicious person."

'Oh, shoot! Totally forgot that I'm currently wearing bloodied clothes right now, I still haven't changed yet after all.'

I quickly speed walked in a random direction before entering a side street between the fences of two mansions.

Cloaking myself in a layer of antimagic, I quickly ran towards the fence.

Jumping, I easily passed through the magical barrier before landing with a splash in the moat.

"Yo Captain! There was a suspicious sound over there. I'll go check it out."

But, when the guard arrived, there was nothing other than a few shining droplets of water on the fence, but which he didn't notice.

On the other hand, I had already crossed the moat by swimming and I was currently running through the forest.

Snapping my fingers, I channeled spiritual energy into my fire stigma, expertly controlling it so that it dried my body without burning my clothes.

Now unimpeded, I continued to run as the forest covered an area of 200 acres.

...

"Huff, huff, huff, huff."

I steadied myself with my hand against the Northern Wall of the castle.

Taking a few moments to catch my breath, I couldn't help but marvel at the buff that the "Magician" job gave me.

You see, each job gave its user a particular buff, and the one for the Magician was no joke.

The preconditions for the Magician job's buff was that you had to be in the midst of "performing", completing a seemingly impossible task. The buff would then boost your rank by a whole level, effectively creating an opportunity for the user to complete their impossible task, their "performance".

So, now that my rank was back at (D+) I could effectively use the first form of "A Whisper in the Night" and the 16 Steps of the Half Moon without facing backlash.

Nimbly climbing over the palace's walls, still cloaked in a layer of antimagic, I quickly jumped straight from the walls to the empress' residence, The Northern Tower.

Clinging to the stones that made up the interior palace like a spider, I quickly scurried up to the balcony that adjoined the empress' room.

Not even bothering to try and enter the room, I left a sealed letter in the exact middle of the balcony, with my OCD, before walking backwards to the railing and jumping off with a backflip just for added "performance", as this would all be recorded on the cameras around the palace anyways.

As I plunged towards the ground, I unraveled my kusarigama before sending them at the Northern Wall.

At the moment they struck, I pulled as hard as I could, sending my body flying over the wall.

"Riiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggggg"

"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! All troops mobilize at the Northern Wall and chase down the intruder!"

Quickly throwing my kusarigama back into my watch, I ran as hard as my puny legs could carry me.

Back on the castle walls, spotlights were being turned on as they swept the darkness in front of them.

'The empress is probably trying to sense my presence right now, but too bad, I've already cloaked myself in antimagic.'

The only reason the alarm had been raised was because I had caused direct destruction to the palace walls, which would trigger the alarm no matter what.

I had done this because I needed to keep the performance going so that I could keep my elevated stats up until I reached the teleportation center.

I continued running as the sounds of pursuit followed me like an annoying shadow.

...

I approached the teleportation center shrouded in another cloak that had been stored in my watch.

Listening to the alarms in the distance, I couldn't help but smile before signaling to the magician to start the teleportation.

My body once again dematerialized before I found myself back at the teleportation center at the L.

'Well, my first "performance" is a resounding success! And, most importantly, it was fun!"

Watching the sun slowly creep over the horizon, a smile appeared on my face as I acted as if I had just taken a morning jog before heading back to my room.

I didn't even bother with showering as I immediately collapsed on my bed, quickly losing consciousness.