"A stick?"
Felix whispered.
"You’re deciding the Fate of three lives with a stick?"
"It’s a very nice stick, Spoon. Don’t judge."
Ignotus didn’t hesitate or build suspense.
He just tossed the stick into the air.
Flip. Flip. Flip.
Ti seed to slow down for the three n on their knees.
They watched the piece of wood rotate against the morning sky.
It hit the dirt, bounced once, rolled... and stopped.
The curved end was pointing directly at the river.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The assassins stared at the stick.
They looked at the river.
They looked at Ignotus.
"Well..."
He shrugged, dusting off his hands.
"It looks like today is your lucky day."
The assassins collapsed, the relief physical, practically deflating them.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
The young one started crying again.
"Scram..."
Ignotus waved them off.
"Before I change my mind, or before I find a stick that won’t betray ."
They didn’t need telling twice, scrambling to their feet, bowing frantically, and sprinting into the jungle. The pitiful lot tripped over each other in their haste to put as much distance between themselves and the ’Trash of House Plant’ as possible.
"And hey!"
Ignotus shouted after their retreating backs.
They froze, terrified he was reneging.
"Be better people!"
Ignotus yelled with his hands cupped around his mouth.
"Get a real job! Maybe farming! Or baking! Assassination doesn’t suit you!"
They nodded vigorously and vanished into the trees.
Felix watched them go, shaking his head.
"They won’t, you know."
He walked up to stand beside Ignotus.
"They’re terrified now, sure. But give it a week, and they’ll be back to cutting throats for coin. Scum like them don’t turn good just because they were spared and shown kindness."
Ignotus watched the leaves rustle where the n had disappeared.
"Yes."
His expression was unreadable.
"You’re probably right. They’ll likely rob soone before noon."
He turned to Felix, a small, faint smile playing on his lips.
"But sotis... it’s just nice to expect change. To give this realm a chance to be decent. Wouldn’t you say?"
Felix stared at him.
He opened his mouth to reply, but the words died in his throat.
For a mont, the lanky, sarcastic, murderous teenager was gone. In his place stood soone... older. Soone weary. Soone who had seen too much darkness and decided, just for a second, to pretend the light existed.
’Who is he?’
Inexplicably, a chill ran down Felix’s spine.
’Is there an old man living in that skin?’
"You..."
Felix stamred.
"You are very strange, Young Lord."
Ignotus chuckled, the mont breaking instantly, his shark-like grin returning.
"And sotis you’re very observant, Spoon."
He clapped Felix on the shoulder, nearly knocking the butler over.
"Now, stay here, guard the camp, and don’t let the fire die. If another assassin cos, try dancing again. It was very entertaining."
"So you were watching?!"
"I had to analyze things before acting~."
Sighing at his Lord while rubbing his aching shoulder, Felix asked:
"Where are you going?"
Ignotus turned toward the deeper part of the jungle.
"To think a little, this interruption changed many of my plans."
He walked off, humming a tune.
’Okay... Ordination 12. It’s not bad, but not great... I think.’
Ignotus needed to move faster, especially now that assassins had already begun reaching him... If he were to survive, he needed to be much stronger than his three hunters expected.
So, while he walked, he pulled up his ntal map of his Rune Path.
—
{Rune Path}
[Luck → Wise Fool →]
—
Besides those Runes, he had Rule Breaker and Beholding Eyes, the two Soul Glyphs, but his stats were still pitifully low compared to where he needed to be for his upcoming fights.
’I need so sort of ordination-boosting thod.’
He frowned, kicking a pinecone.
’Unfortunately, I’m broke.’
Most fast Ordination increase thods in this realm require coin.
If he had gold, he could hire a high-ranking rcenary to carry him through a low-difficulty dungeon, letting him soak up the Soul Fragnts while they did the heavy lifting.
But all he had was a pouch of copper coins that wouldn’t even buy a decent sandwich, let alone a rcenary’s ti.
’What else?’
He could gamble. His Luck stat was B-rank, which was pretty high for a Seeker. But it wasn’t S-rank. Relying on luck to make money was a good way to end up naked in a ditch.
’It’s too risky. I can’t afford to lose my starting capital.’
He sighed.
’Dungeons? Too dangerous solo. Quests? The system is being stingy. Exploits? I can’t yet.’
He stopped in front of a tree, and a monkey hissed at him from above.
Ignotus looked up, drawing his sword.
’So, there’s only one option left...’
He grinned.
’To grind.’
Easily swatting the monkey away, he turned around.
’But I can’t do that right now.’
He didn’t have much ti.
The Saint Academy’s gates would be opening soon. Ignotus needed to head out by noon today at the earliest if he were ever to hope of reaching there in ti.
After all, judging by his luck with assassins, he’d be sure to et a few on the way.
To compound on that further, there was a high chance there’d be no one heading the way he was; most attending the Academy were likely there for a few days now.
That, unfortunately, made his previous plan of hitchhiking and mooching off people practically impossible.
He could only walk the entire way there.
"Ugh..."
He groaned.
"...kill now."
Still, if it was any consolation, the walk would raise his Endurance.
Because, yeah, grinding with his own two legs counted too; it was just that getting more Soul and Divinity was a cheat that took care of that much faster for Runebearers, so this thod was sowhat useless for most.
’We need to start preparing quickly.’
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