Chapter 40: Ch80. Test
Kurt looked at Nikolai and stepped forward, the latter’s eyes glued in each of Kurt’s movements as he slowly approached.
"I don’t want to hurt you, man, so why don’t we leave it alone and go on with the test?"
Nikolai squinted his eyes, but suddenly, Kurt felt something grabbing on to his neck and pulling him backwards.
"You tried to steal my mother’s necklace and you want to... Leave it alone?"
It didn’t feel like telekinesis. It was as if another person had grabbed Kurt and pulled him down.
’Shit, seems like differences aren’t always a good thing.’ He scoffed internally. ’Then let’s see how sturdier I became.’
Kurt rolled backwards and got up again.
Just as he thought, there was no one around him, and all the students had made a circle around him and Nikolai to watch the fight, so it could only be Nikolai’s ability.
He noticed some movement in the corner of his eye, when something hit hit foot really hard and made him fall again.
"See? I told y’all that it was going to be boring!" Lester’s voice echoed through the crowd, while Kurt got up again.
’Okay, I’m not gonna let you talk like that and make me look lame in front of all this people.’
Kurt closed his eyes and raised his fists, using the stats he acquired in the last month to sharpen his senses as best as he could.
In less than a second, Kurt was able to picture in his mind an image of Nikolai, his hands up, and then he heard a small thump.
Nikolai stepped forward, ever so slightly, and then nothing.
A minute moment later, Kurt felt a slight gust of wind behind him and let himself get hit by Nikolai’s kick.
Kurt’s fighting pose kept him from falling to the ground again, after being hit in the thigh.
He opened his eyes and turned around, but Nikolai wasn’t there anymore.
"I only read about it in the books." Kurt grinned, turning around to face Nikolai, who were still in the same spot, looking confused. "Do you have the red stripe because your [BLINK] only happens to be awakened in the Semenov family?"
Nikolai tilted his head while the other students gasped.
"He’s smart!"
"Shut up, y’all! He’s a nobody!" Lester shouted.
"What are you even doing here with the Indigo, Crimson?" The red-haired girl asked, glaring at him.
Lester didn’t know what to speak, so he tried to stutter a few words, but neither the red-haired girl nor the other students were paying attention to him.
The fight had escalated to another level, after Nikolai understood that his ability wouldn’t work anymore on Kurt.
They were now in an all-out fist fight.
And Kurt didn’t seem to be pushed back.
Fists and feet flew all around in what seemed to be a storm of attacks, even though it weren’t fast enough to be called something exciting.
But the attacks hit, and when they hit, bruised would appear, pieces of skin would swell, and the damage would pile up.
’Faster... Closer...’ Kurt thought, focusing on the strikes as Nikolai himself began to put more effort on his movements, too.
But the moment Kurt got close enough, he used his [QUICK FINGERS], along with a sweep of the leg that took Nikolai to the ground. His hand reached Nikolai’s pocket in the blink of an eye, and when Kurt grabbed Nikolai’s head and prepared to hit the floor with it, Nikolai shouted, and the system beeped at the same time.
"I YIELD!"
[POCKETS PICKED: 100/100]
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU COMPLETED THE QUEST – Slight of hand]
[THE REWARDS ARE BEING CALCULATED]
[3... 2... 1...]
[REWARDS RECEIVED: Unique skill; Stat Points x12; EXP; Special Item]
[LEVEL UP]
[YOU HAVE REACHED LEVEL 02]
[UNIQUE SKILL: COPYCAT]
[SPECIAL ITEM: FULL RECOVERY]
As Kurt read the words in passing, he got up and helped Nikolai get up, too.
"You’re pretty tough, man." The boy said with his Russian accent. "I didn’t think there would be a man as hard to beat as me, here." He laughed.
But Kurt didn’t.
He felt something filling up his heart. Something he couldn’t describe, but it felt good, and guilty at the same time.
"You too, man. I’m sorry, but I had to do it." Kurt nodded towards the boy.
He reached into his pocket, and handed the necklace back, along with Nikolai’s holowatch.
Nikolai’s eyes went wide in shock.
"You did it while we were fighting?" Kurt nodded. "Then you must be an even more impressive irregular than I thought."
Kurt’s brow went up.
"What did you say?"
"What? You don’t know about irregulars? I’ll tell you on the way, now let’s get to the test, and I suggest we don’t split up." He laughed again. "We made quite the mess out of each other, so we can die at any moment inside that thing, if what Zaval said is true."
The two walked towards the bubble under the students amused glances. Lester, however, gritted his teeth and left the training grounds, nodding to the teacher waiting by the center room’s door.
***
When Kurt and Nikolai crossed the bubble’s threshold, the sight took their breath away.
"No way that it’s an artificial Nest..." Nikolai said, looking at the dense forest around them.
The forest was deadly silent, and little by little, the silence was broken by the murmur of the students, crossing the bubble one by one, sometimes in groups.
"Why did you need to steal my things?" Nikolai asked, looking at Kurt with suspicion.
Kurt looked at Nikolai, weighing his options.
The memories of what happened to him in the [MEMORY FRAGMENT] were still fresh in his mind, so the only possible option Kurt thought about was.
"Why are you talking to me like we’re friends or something?" Kurt snorted. "I didn’t say so."
Nikolai raised his brow but kept quiet.
"That’s what I thought." Kurt finished, walking towards the dense forest in front of them. ’I won’t loose them if they’re not close to me.’
No one could see the look on his face.
Kurt felt like he knew Nikolai, despite what he thought a while before, and remembering the feeling of the young Russian’s friendship, the only thing that held him together, made his words almost bottle up inside his throat.
But he pressed on, before he could change his mind.
He heard the students mumbling about gathering in groups, to make the raid easier for them, but Kurt didn’t feel like joining anyone.
’If I want to reach Level five or higher, I can’t count on anyone else. So... Let’s go.’
He followed the tree line and felt the silence.
The forest was unusually silent, even for a forest. There were no crickets singing, no bird chirping, it looked like there was not a single form of life inside it.
’I won’t be reckless like you, Kurt...’ He thought, sharpening his senses.
Kurt looked as deeply as he could into the forest, and after a few seconds, he devised it.
Countless pairs of glowing eyes, lurking in the darkness.
"So you’re all just waiting for the free meal, huh...?" ’Distribute three points to [STRENGTH], three points to [AGILITY], three points to [DEXTERITY], and three points to [VIGOR]!’
When he looked at his stat window, not only the basic stats had changed, but also his [HP] had increased, too.
And his basic stats got higher by two points, which Kurt thought was because of the level up.
’So I gain 12 stat points by leveling up, distributed equally among my stats... While a single quest gave me the same amount of stat points. If the quests keep giving this amount of stat points every time I complete them, I’ll soon be able to handle a D-rank beast.’ "But for now, let’s check the possibilities."
Then, a scream came out of the forest, followed by other screams.
"NO, PLEASE, NOOO!"
"LET ME LIVE!"
"AAAAARGH!"
’The slaughter has begun...’ Kurt noticed.
The good would survive, but only the best would thrive.
And Kurt needed to be even better, because it didn’t matter if he didn’t get promoted to Dark-Green.
All he wanted was to get stronger to kill Zaval, and in order to do that...
"I need to take this chance..."
The truth was that Lizard-men were different than the beasts that hoarded the darkness of the deep forest, and if Kurt was right about what he had been thinking, and the screams assured him that he was...
Those were Forest Direwolves, an uncommon type of beast that existed in forest-type Nests, but usually were encountered in the third level of a forest-type Nest.
And they were more dangerous than regular beasts, because they always surrounded their prey and attacked in packs.
"Which means that I can’t draw their attention, and if possible..." He smirked, a plan forming in his mind. "I have to keep them focused on the other students..."
