"Gulp"
'What the hell should I do now!!!'
Head clouded with doubts and fear, he could not make a thought of what to do in this predicament.
He could hear the rapidly approaching footsteps and the shouts of the people who came to catch the culprit of the mess in the tent.
And he stood there, glancing around in panic not making head or tails as to what he had to do to save himself from getting caught.
'Calm down Felix, you have a system, calm down..'
Reminding himself that he had a system to help him, he stopped his restlessness and started thinking of a plan to use the new skill points he got.
'I need to create a skill to escape...shit. Why am I always escaping?'
Still cursing, he deliberated on what skill could help him from escaping from the dead end without a single way out.
Eyes closed, his mind replayed many scenes ranging from abilities to powers of different characters from his fantasies.
He widened his eyes when he remembered a scene from an anime he saw. It was his favorite anime from his previous life, one pie*e, and the ability was from a devilfrui* called sui sui no mi which made him feel that it had a lot of potentials.
Felix closed his eyes and quickly imagined the skill and its uses.
"System hurry and create that skill."
[Processing the skill's power scale....grading the skill....estimating the possible points required.....skill successfully moduled.]
"Fucking hurry!!"
[Ding!]
[Skill Name: Earth Swimming
Description:
The skill allows the user to swim in a solid matter such as ground and walls as if they were water. Even allowing the user to swim upwards, seemingly defying gravity.
Cost: 90 skill points]
[Do you wish to use 90 skill points and create the skill 'Earth Swimming'?]
"90? Fair enough I guess. Yes, create it now!"
[Ding!]
[Successfully created a new skill.]
Confirming that the skill was created, he didn't waste any more time and quickly thought of using the skill.
Slowly, his feets started to sink into the ground. As if the ground was water, Felix's body started to drown in it.
When his whole body sank into the ground and disappeared without the slightest hint of his existence, the people finally arrived at the dead-end.
"There seems to be no way ahead. Let's go back and search through the other paths."
After finding that there was no here and no way to go ahead, they discussed it among themselves and turned around to leave the place.
The sound of their footsteps went back from where they came from, as nobody was left at the scene.
*****
'This is fucking awesome!!'
Felix thought as he swam through the ground. He could not see much as he was inside the solid, yet liquid for his touch surface.
As he quickly moved within the ground, he could not help but think that this skill was a cheat through and through. It could be used to infiltrate, escape, steal, and much more without any fear of being caught.
'Damn, now there's no need to be afraid of people ever catching me.'
He grinned evilly as he slowly surfaced his head to see if they were still running after him.
It seemed that he was already far from them as he could not see or hear their footsteps any longer. Thinking that there was no need to be afraid of them catching him, he slowly swam on the ground finding a way to the public streets.
After a few minutes of struggling and navigating through the alleyways, he started hearing the common hustle and bustle sound of the public streets.
'Sigh...I'm finally safe.'
From behind a wall, Felix hid and slowly came out of the ground to the surface, then deactivated his new skill 'Earth Swimming'. Making sure that nobody was looking at him, he swiftly joined the crown and started walking.
'Wait, I don't even know where I'm going.'
Realizing that he still did not know the way to the guild, he took out his map and started asking some people the directions.
"Hello, do you know the directions to the Twilight Chaos Guild?"
Felix made sure to ask multiple people this time in case they gave him the wrong directions.
Now, with the direction that many people gave, he found the way and rapidly navigated toward the guild.
*****
The seven-floor tall dark gothic building stood in front of him.
"Sniff...I'm finally back."
Felix felt like crying after seeing the not-so-scary guild building that he kind of missed after getting lost in the unknown city.
"Growl~~"
"Oh! Right on time, huh?"
Rubbing his roaring tummy, Felix smiled at how today's events went.
'I completed my first mission easily and even got many skill points from a fortunate encounter. Even though I spent some of them creating a new skill, it was worth it.'
He started walking toward the gate and entered the compound. Taking out his id card, he pressed it against the evil eye on the door.
"Creak~"
The big door slowly opened up, revealing the hall. Felix made his way toward the reception as the door automatically closed itself.
"Miss Elsa, I have completed the mission."
He called out to the receptionist who was busy arranging some parchments on her desk.
"Oh, Felix. You completed it so quickly."
Elsa responded a bit amazed that he completed it so fast, considering it was his first mission and with his inexperience in such things.
"Here, this is the mission scroll."
He took out the scroll which was signed by the client and gave it to her.
Checking the scroll, she took out a stamp and made the mission's status complete. After that, she opened a drawer from the desk and took out some coins.
"Congratulations on completing your first mission, this is your earned reward."
Elsa applauded the happily smiling boy as she placed some coins on the desk. They were one silver coin and five blue coins.
"This is the reward you get for completing the mission. Do you wish to pay the debt you owe us right now? Or will you pay it later?"
Felix stopped his hands that were moving toward the desk to snatch the coins he saw for the first time. His face turned from joy to dumbfounded as he remembered the money he owed them.
With a resigned expression, he turned to reply to the receptionist who wore a devil-like smile on her face as if finding joy in torturing a little kid.
"T-This...sigh...alright I'll pay them right now."
"Wonderful, taking into account the price of the map was 200 tahl and the set of clothes was worth 60 tahl."
She took three blue coins back and put two yellow coins on the desk. Pushing it toward Felix, she smiled at him.
"Here, this will be your reward. A total of 1240 tahls. Thank you for completing the mission."
Felix looked at the now reduced coins and took them in a flash because he did not want to lose any more of that meager sum.
"Oh, thank you for the reward. But shouldn't I also pay for the room?"
"You don't have to worry about that. The rent of the room is paid after every month, so you do not have to pay it every day you live there."
"That's nice-"
"Growl~~"
Felix and Elsa looked at where the voice came from and stared at his tummy which was still roaring like a distant thunderstorm.
"Haha, it seems you have to also reward your stomach with something."
The receptionist chuckled at the boy who turned red from embarrassment as the growling voice was too loud in the quiet hall and it could be heard echoing across.
"I-I'll get going then.."
He could only blurt that out before dashing toward the stairs, not minding everyone's strange looks.
Elsa shook her head and smiled at Felix who seemed like he would empty the kitchen with that ferocious look on his face.
"Boy, you have to eat a lot and grow strong. Or else you won't be able to keep up with the events that have yet to come."
Her face turned grim as she remembered what their leader had ordered them to do and what fate their guild would have in the near future.