Casual Violence

Ian was stunned.

"Why are you here?" he asked. "Are you all right?"

"That's the question I wanted to hear, but I am actually here because I am concerned for you." Lilac smiled and stepped onto the bank of the river. "Kortock found me and explained the little problem you had earlier."

"It was a big problem," Ian corrected her gently, not caring that the girl was probably being sarcastic.

Lilac merely laughed and took off her boots. She had the most beautiful, womanly, clean feet, but now she got her toes dirty in the mud.

"What are you doing?" Ian asked her.

"You never dip your toes in running water?"

"Do showers count?"

Kortock arrived with the rest of the little company, surprising Ian with his choices.

There was a man in his thirties who was even wider than the mentor himself. The muscular fellow had the air of a gentle giant, largely due to him obviously overcompensating his appearance. Ian admitted to himself that a guy of that size probably got a lot of fearful reactions from judgmental people.

Then there was Aiden, who seemed to be genuinely apologetic about his former bad behavior. Aiden averted his gaze when Ian looked at him, like he was wounded by his own actions.

"I don't get it why you came at all," Ian said. He was merely being honest. He didn't want Aiden's approval, not now, not after all these years of bullying.

"It's not completely due to regret," Aiden said, finally forcing himself to maintain eye contact.

Ian couldn't hate him.

"There is a war going on, and it seems to be way more complicated than the military forces let us imagine it is. You're going to need someone who is a decent marksman. Not bragging, I swear, but you remember how I was pulled from the mandatory shooting classes?"

"Yeah, I do remember," Ian said.

"I was not in detention. I was practicing with army guys twice my age, outperforming them, too. I'm not mythically good, but I am good enough that you can't do well without my skills. Are you okay with this, Ian? I'm begging you. Not for my sake, but for the sake of 13 and all humans."

"Sounds awfully pretentious, but so does my system," Ian said, glancing approvingly at the guns Aiden had strapped onto his body.

There were four of them, and it seemed likely that there were more hidden somewhere. Ian didn't want to stare long enough to find the hidden ones.

Aiden, too, had a really nice cybernetic suit. It was blue and sleek, fit for someone who was not playing the part of a tank-like person.

"What is your System?" Ian asked him. "Hopefully, and I can't believe I am saying this, hopefully it has nothing to do with sandwiches."

Aiden chuckled. "You've always been the funniest one. No, I got lucky, not as lucky as you, but still. I got the Laser Focus System. It helps me with aiming and everything that needs precise attention."

[INTELLIGENCE IS NOW 14]

"Thanks," Ian said without thinking about whether he really had to say it out loud.

An interesting question about the possible sentient nature of his system and all other systems arose in his mind.

"Thanks for what?" Aiden asked, annoyingly interrupting his thoughts.

"Not you. I just received a system update."

"Stats rising?"

"My intelligence is soaring. I wish I could understand why."

Ian glanced towards the tank guy and Kortock, who were play-fighting, apparently trying to get stronger. The match was surprisingly even, but it was more due to the agility that Kortock applied to his moves.

"I need to be killing those cobras," Ian told his mentor as soon as he was able to drag the man away from the buff dude.

"Your strength is still worryingly low, is it not? You should focus on other things besides just blindly leveling up. If you only hoard puppies and exp, you will find that important stats drag you down when you have not paid enough attention to them."

"It's true. You are right." Ian sighed. "My strength is lagging behind and I need help with it."

"Why don't you do what I do?" Kortock spoke softly, so that not even Lilac heard, or at least it did not seem like she heard him – and women rarely missed anything that was spoken with the intention of them staying unaware of those secret topics.

"The krobinnuti growth hormone. More of it." Ian shook his head. "It can't possibly be safe."

"Oh, but arson is safe?"

"It was an accident."

"Which one? The time you took down your own home? Or the forest fire?"

Ian was getting frustrated.

"No means – you know what? Whatever. You won't believe me anyway. Give me that flask."

Ian chugged down the strange liquid and looked his mentor in the eyes.

"You better be willing to wrestle with me now," Ian said. "If we are going to camp out in the woods for a while, we might as well have fun."

The others cleared an area for Ian and Kortock.

Without giving any kind of a warning, the mentor attacked Ian, pushing him towards the ground. Kortock was scarily strong and agile, but he was not being completely serious, and Ian was even more agile.

Ian dodged and let his mentor take a roll on the ground.

Kortock got up and grabbed Ian, putting his arms around Ian's waist in order to get him to fall.

Ian lost his balance and now it was his turn to roll on the ground.

They continued this game, and slowly Ian felt a new strength flowing in him, almost as if some processes in his body had been accelerated.

[STRENGTH IS NOW 7]

"Hey, I got a-"

Kortock tackled him.

Ian saw a glimpse of Lilac as he flew through the air. She looked properly horrified, and during the time between the impact and the slight pain that followed Ian thought that he had found himself a really sweet girl.