Chapter 131: Kambe

"For now, I'm just an observer, priestess."

"Yes, yes," she nodded," whatever you say... mascot."

Our tour wasn't finished yet. My babe showed me around the other bigger guilds, so I observed bowmen, mages, and other warrior-classes train together. After I asked about the thieves' job, the priestess told me that the matter was a bit complicated, and when the System chimed in with a notification saying "Quest is unavailable for now — Try again later," I contented myself with seeing mages, archers, and swordsmen in action. Fun to watch.

After a few minutes, the priestess told me to hurry along. We didn't linger. After another couple of long minutes, other plans were decided between the two of us, and the priestess told me she shall head off on her own to take care of her own things before sunset. I didn't forget to thank her a lot after I said I was sure she didn't have to tag along more with me, and that I'd be fine on my own.

For some reason, I earned a flick on my forehead, and the priestess departed.

Then, I was alone. In the vast sandy yard of the training grounds area, I rested my back upon a tree, and I waited for "it." The reason why I came here. By now, I was sure "it" had waited for me to be alone, too. "It" must have waited for the priestess to go off on her own, too.

Has she seen through me? I thought. I only needed her to be gone. I've had all the intel I wanted to have. But what about what I truly want to observe, hm? The guilds? Not so much. I know what I must do here is get to learn a competence from any guild so that I can uncover the System... and what I remembered was called "Skill Tab" or something, from back in the woods... but what do I truly want to observe, eh? Even I don't know... but I'm sure "it" will come back to me again. With "Mana Perception," I can feel the same presence as when I first came here weeks ago. ...But how exactly am I supposed to have it come at me again—

Ugh!?

Just as I thought this, my back leisurely leaning on a tree under the sun's shades, I was paralyzed all over. My heartbeat quickened. My lungs picked up the pace. I knew it. It was bound to happen.

Where was this killing intent coming from? This oh-so-hostile aura? Not even the old man scared me like this when he unveiled his aura to me. I needed to concentrate, concentrate, concentrate... find out from where they assaulted me, and I needed to kill them.

But my body tensed up as I felt freezing all over. The sensation the killing intent brought over me felt like being stabbed with a thousand chilly needles all over my body and soul. It lasted no more than a second, but despite the many presences of monster-hunters around me, I felt all alone, in the dark, bitten-frozen by the coldest snow... and the two preying eyes I felt weighing down a thousand burdens' weight on my back was the worst of it all.

Death frolicked with me... but it only lasted a little second.

Frantically swinging my head from left to right, I scanned the area all around me. I had already pretty much discovered all there was about the training grounds, except for that which just assaulted me. With one question on my mind — Where is it from? — I let my eyes dart to every door of the cluster of guild offices down this place, but after I realized I wouldn't get anywhere with that, I snapped my eyes shut and tracked the hostile presence down with Mana Perception.

This skill was as usual oh-so-versatile, and I spotted a place, a direction, and a destination.

"Found you," I murmured, grinning, still assaulted by the heavy killing intent floating above myself. Loudly stomping on the ground, I brought one of my feet in front of the other, marching onward like a soldier toward another. Anyone seeing me going like this would gasp and say, "Whoa— Tough guy," kindly ignoring my height.

And the person who hid behind those taunting moves would think the same.

I had felt death preying on me. My senses didn't react calmly to it. As the killing intent was clearly only directed at me for who knows what reason, I gathered the other mana-wielders around me were totally unaffected. Nobody was moved, interrupted, or put off in the slightest. And there I was, in the middle of all the empty sandy yard, alone. By now, the killing intent brought upon my soul had ceased.

With alacrity, I reached out to doors. Among all the professional-looking offices and dojos of the many guilds you could join, there was this little loner of a dojo or something.

If my face was deeply marked with a scowl of disgust and anger, when I thought I'd finally catch the person who directed their killing intent at me, at present, every bit of negative emotion hanging around me vanished.

What the heck's even that, I thought, slightly annoyed. Can you even call that a "guild"? Or an "office"? A "dojo" where newcomers train and stuff? ...Sure, you can, but jeez, does it not sound right.

Hoh, and the System kindly ordered me to make whatever job-related guild this one rundown dojo was about my own guild. My own guild as in taking the instructor of this guild as my master and see where this goes. The heck? I didn't want to.

In a few words, the place, from the outside, looked forsaken and pretty fatigued. If all the job-related guilds could be said to form a grand circle together around the sandy yard, you could barely say that this guild, whose name was "To Live and To Die by The Blade," was part of the bigger friendly circle of the bigger guilds.

The sign reading the name wasn't even standing straight, lacking a nail on the edge and leaning to one side. Climbing up two steps, in my momentum, I busted the two old creaking doors open with a kick. The two doors were slammed on the inside wall, and one fell to the ground, broken.

"...Aoi in the house," I said, listless. Stepping in front of the door that just fell, I winced and loudly stomped my foot on it thrice. "Knock, knock, knock." With each blow I gave the door, I may have looked like I was trying to break it more than it already was, but that was how I decided to knock at the door of my enemy. "Hey."

Inside, there weren't three, two, but only one instructor. That figures. All alone, as if the eastern-styled swordsman was also a monster, he formally sat on his knees in the middle of the dojo, without even turning his head toward me. If the adult wasn't looking so young and more like my old man, the picture he offered to me would have been perfectly illustrating an old grandmaster of the sword peacefully contemplating the way of the sword in the silence of his dojo.

The System tasked me with "getting acquainted with the instructor of the Player's guild."

"Hey!"

The inside of the dojo was bland and empty. From the outside, it looked rundown, but from within, I guess you could say it was just okay. With a quick glance, I spotted a cabinet in an empty corner, and at another wall, there was a pitch-black longsword. The sword was an impressive thing and had laid my eyes on it for longer than a minute, it would have probably swallowed me whole. It felt as alive as cold, like a hellish egg ready to hatch.

After a minute, Kambe Streman still didn't reply. At this point, though we still hadn't exchanged any words of greetings to one another, it was clear to me that the newborn monster had met with the bigger monster.

I took one step deeper into the dojo. "You're this guild's master, aren't you?" The swordsman still didn't give me anything at all, not even a quick glance to acknowledge my presence. Sternly and formally sitting still, somehow perfectly motionless, with his hands gathered on his knees, it was as though the man was a statue of steel. "...Never mind," I sighed, defeated. "So you want to fight, mister?"

For once, I wasn't the weirdo here. Just about staring off into the void, I didn't know what the man was contemplating and meditating about, but his non-reactivity was being as dignified as creepy, for some reason. This man was a superior man, I knew it.

Oh, and it was the first time I saw such a thing as a sword made of wood. A bokken. A practice weapon.

I'd been assaulted, or rather picked on by the passive swordsman more than twice, so what was with the act, now? To say the least, if the goal was to put me off, the operation was a success. Initially, busting the two doors open, I thought we would have at it right off the bat, I'd kill him, and then go back to the matter of learning one skill from any of the guilds... but oh well.

The atmosphere was weird, but I remembered what I came here for. To kill. Standing ten feet away from the man, I let my nails turn to sharp claws, poured some of my aura out, and jumped at the man—

Or not exactly. Right before I was ready to jump at the statue's throat, my instinct yelled at me to back off. The sleeping swordsman reacted then and placed one of his hands on the bokken resting by his side. Two perfectly relaxed and chilly eyes were set upon me, and my life was as if sucked out of myself. Without a doubt. I took a step backward, but when the two cold eyes gripped me, I couldn't back off anymore.

Yes, it was then that the monster met with the bigger monster.

And soon, the cold statue of the young adult sleeping swordsman would break off its shell, warmly smile at me with an appreciative sigh, and propose that we share a meal together.