Chapter 35: Ch75. Slight of hand - 5 (Black suits and combat boots)
The morning jog didn’t seem like it was going to last as long as Kurt hoped, but he pressed on and kept his legs moving, despite how they began to ache.
Fifteen minutes later, it didn’t matter how hard the boy tried to focus on anything else but his body.
The pain was so sharp in his shins that the only thing he wanted was to stop and get some rest.
He didn’t notice the man walking his dog following him, though, nor the woman sitting in the park bench, discreetly taking pictures of him while sipping her coffee.
However, the pain he was feeling was so sharp, that he couldn’t think of going on with his exercises, so he sat down on the bench where the woman sipping her coffee was.
Kurt breathed in and out, slowly, massaging his shins while grimacing from the pain, but he focused on enduring it.
’If I can’t take a single morning jog head on, what good am I for, then?’ He gritted his teeth and kept massaging his legs.
Nothing happened for the few minutes Kurt spent on the bench, and the pain didn’t seem to go away, so he got up and sighed.
"I guess I’ll have to go back home and rest for a while..." He got stretched a bit, and walked this time, back home.
The pain only got worse, but he endured it, and as Kurt began to think that he had hurt his legs in some manner, the sudden beep from the system came.
[VIGOR INCREASED BY 02]
Kurt suppressed a scream.
"What?" He didn’t think he would have any results this time, but it looked otherwise, so he arrived home much more relieved.
Kurt spent the next two weeks working out. He began walking every morning, and when walking for one hour became more tolerable and he didn’t feel like crawling his way back home, Kurt began jogging, then running.
After the two weeks had passed, he had a towel on his shoulder, sweaty but reinvigorated after a session of push-ups, crunches, and a light sparring with his dad, before Octavius had to go to the guild’s headquarters.
"I can’t believe you’re recovering so fast, my son." Octavius had a big smile on his lips while looking at Kurt. "You look very different from the kid you were two years before the accident." And after he hugged Kurt. "I’m proud of you, son."
"Thanks, dad. I had to do something of what happened after I woke up..." His expression became slightly dark. "I couldn’t just sit idly by and feel depressed while the thing that killed mom might still be around."
Octavius felt his chest tight.
He wanted his son to have a normal life, away from wielders and everything, but there he was.
Kurt became a few centimeters taller, which Octavius found a bit disturbing, but didn’t say a thing, his physique was slowly getting a shredded shape, and even the look on his face was different.
"I guess you really are determined to become a wielder after all, huh?" Octavius sighed, smiling.
"Nothing could change this goal of mine, dad."
"Okay. I’m leaving now, and I’ll probably won’t be home for a few days. There’s a big raid coming, an A+ Nest, and I need to supervise my men, so you take care of yourself, and keep doing what you think is best for you, okay?"
"Sure thing, dad." Kurt nodded as he watched Octavius leave the training room.
Kurt went to the shower, and as the hot water caressed his sore muscles, he opened the system window.
[NAME: Kurt Blake]
[AGE: 15]
[LEVEL: 01]
[CLASS: ???]
[STAMINA: 115]
[HP: 120]
[MP: 50]
[BASIC STATS]
[Strength: 30
Agility: 20
Dexterity: 21
Perception: 22
Intelligence: 05
Vigor: 30]
[SKILLS]
[Quick fingers LVL 02]
****** ***
****** ****
***** **** ** * ******** ****
He noticed when, a few days before, the system had announced the level up of his skill, [QUICK FINGERS], after he picked up fifty pockets, and his desk was now a storage for the most varied sorts of small things.
Wallets, necklaces, wristbands, small gems. There was even a whistle among the trinkets.
And Kurt was getting better and better in the art of picking pockets, but it didn’t make him feel good or anything.
Picking pockets just made him feel like a petty thief.
He had an ostentatious home, more food on his table than he could ever eat in one meal, clothes and all.
He only understood the designs of the system for his future class, because what the other world’s Kurt had gone through when he was alive, so he didn’t complain.
It didn’t pay anything other than stat points but...
"A job is a job." He said one of those days. "If I get stronger with this, than I won’t complain."
His quest, though, [AN EYE FOR AN EYE], was still there, untouched and unchanged.
But what troubled Kurt the most, was that his level hadn’t gone up yet. He was still level one, despite the increase in his stats.
"I need something that will help me level up..." He said to himself, gritting his teeth. "A raid or something... I know there’s something missing, so if you have something... Anything for me, I’ll take it and turn it into experience to level up. So come on, system... I know you have something up your sleeve..."
***
The following morning went on uneventful.
Kurt went out to his morning run, after having breakfast, went back home to work out, showered, and had lunch.
After this daily ritual, he wore his black hoodie, jogging pants, and got ready to leave again.
It was time to pick some more pockets.
If everything went according to his plan, he would be done with the quest before the school break was over, and he wanted to see if completing this quest would help him level up to at least level two, so he walked towards the door to go out again, and Kurt was determined to not come back home until he had picked at least twenty pockets.
But as soon as he approached the door, something tingled in his mind.
Kurt froze on his steps.
The feeling was fleeting, but felt dangerous.
Suddenly, the door burst open and three men in black suits barged in the manor’s hall, all of them with weapons in hand.
"Kurt Blake..." One of the men spoke, and Kurt noticed a slight familiarity with his voice. "I’d like you to come with us."
Kurt scanned the men from head to toes.
’Three men with batons, it’s probably electrified or something, or they don’t want to make noise, but how did they get in here...?’
"Come on, kid. Move." The man urged.
Kurt felt his chest elate, like something inside of him wanted to come out, but he didn’t quite understand what it was.
He didn’t move, though.
"Don’t make us make you..." The man stepped forward.
Kurt felt goosebumps as the man moved forward.
’He feels the most dangerous of the three, but...’
A smirk sprouted on his lips.
"What if I don’t want to?"
