Chapter 9: Practice
"How should I hide my blackeye?", Allen muttered while he was looking at his reflection on the mirror.
He was beaten up badly by his own little brother. Now, William won't even talk to him too. The ten year old kid may be perceptive and smart, but he was still a kid nonetheless who could throw a tantrum.
Allen then thought of something and walked away from the vicinity of the house.
***
Allen walked out of a shop, he bought a worn out low quality eyepatch with his one bronze coin to cover up his blackeye.
Afterwards, because there was nothing to do, he went towards the Three Heads Tavern.
As soon as he entered the tavern, he heard the people drinking and eating in the establishment talk about a certain issue.
"The necromancer died right in front of my house! My family could've been hurt if that man was still alive.", a man in front of the counter declared throughout the whole tavern.
"A necromancer? You mean an old man they said who died last night? Come on, don't exaggerate his death!", Customer No. 1 said.
"It's true, it was really a necromancer! The chief guard himself personally approved that it was among those vile killers!", Customer No. 2 interrupted.
"Really?", Customer No. 1 asked.
"Yes.", the man nodded. "I would've never said that it was a necromancer out loud, or else everyone would think I'm crazy."
"Then... how did he die?", Customer No. 3 asked.
After that question, everyone's interest was piqued, including Allen's, and they lended an ear to listen.
"He.... well, I have no idea. There was nothing released on the board outside the city hall about how did he die.", the man shook his head.
Everyone was disappointed by the man's reply and the tavern suddenly became quiet.
"How did the necromancer enter the city then?", another customer asked.
Now, the establishment became lively again as they waited for the man to answer the question.
"Do you remember the news about a mage coming to divine the person who killed the chief guard's son?", the man said.
"Huh?"
"Yeah."
"So what about it?"
"The invited mage was in fact the necromancer!", the man said.
"What?!"
"How?"
"That's impossible, you're just slandering the mayor.", a customer, who was obviously a supporter of the mayor, said.
"No I'm not! The mayor himself wrote a note of apology about it, it's posted on the board too!", the man said.
"Whoa!"
"I'm going to check it later."
"Me too."
"If it is really a necromancer... then we would've died in our sleep last night if that evil being wasn't killed!", a customer shouted while pointing out.
All the other people felt chill in their hearts, what that customer just said was right, they and their families would have been killed if the necromancer didn't perish!
They have heard of stories from travelers and merchants all over the kingdom about villages and towns getting massacred by necromancers!
It frightened the populace of the villages, towns and cities to the point that the Retollian Holy Alliance took action with the help of the kingdom.
In the end, they solved the case of the circulated stories. They didn't destroy a single one of the scattered groups of necromancers, but caught the person who was the mastermind behind all the stories.
That person was a merchant who was selling fake bane protections, he started to make up the stories so his products could be bought.
Of course, there were some people that still believed that there were communities massacred by the necromancers tho.
"Hey, if you want to eat, sit down or get out of here.", a voice said towards Allen.
Allen looked at his side and saw Kate, who had the same indifferent attitude to almost everyone.
Kate showed a visible shock as he saw that it was Allen, "Ehh, it's you Allen? I didn't know it was you with that eyepatch, and why are you even wearing one?"
Allen carefully lifted his eyepatch to show Kate and placed back down on his eye.
"How did you get a blackeye? I don't remember you having one last night.", Kate asked.
"My little brother punched me in the face.", Allen answered quietly, so others won't be able to hear it.
"Oh.", Kate paused and asked. "Why are you here?"
"I don't know where should I go."
"You're not going to eat or drink anything?"
"No."
"Get out of here!", Kate pushed Allen outside the tavern and closed the door behind him.
"So rude.", Allen muttered.
'What should I do now then?', he thought.
He then suddenly remembered about the three dagger special techniques he got within his mind last night.
'I should practice them, I guess?', Allen sighed inwardly. He was just a pickpocket, then became a new assassin overnight.
He didn't want to kill in the first place, but he had no choice because he felt that the tavern owner wasn't as simple as one would think, and he would really kill his family.
***
Back at the family house...
Allen quietly entered the house and sneaked upstairs to check if William was in his bedroom. He didn't see his little brother, so he inspected the whole house except for his father's bedroom, however, he still couldn't see William.
"Did he go somewhere else?", Allen pondered.
After a while of searching all over the house, he still couldn't find his little brother.
"Well then, that's good, I could practice in my bedroom then.", Allen took a blunt knife from the kitchen and went to his bedroom. He sat on the bed and entered a half-sleep state with great difficulty. A familiar force suddenly pulled his consciousness somewhere else.
Allen could now see the dagger in front of him, at the same time, he could hear the voice of the devil whispering at him.
"Shut up." Allen ignored the voice. He slowly approached the dagger, before he could even touch it, a repulsive force came from the weapon which threw him back and forcibly expelled him from his half-sleep state.
"Ow...", Allen felt like his brain was shaking. He was only trying to hold the dagger in the half-sleep state, however, it was obviously restricted.
He gave up the idea and just recalled the three dagger special skills. He took out a blank notebook from a drawer and a coal pencil; he wrote the the skills' method of execution, effect, etc.
He exactly wrote...
Dagger Flash; could be executed with any dagger or dagger-like weapons:
Send out a dagger flash towards your enemy at a short distance. The strength depends on the quality of the weapon and the amount of energy used.
Firm Fists; hands only:
Uses low amount of energy to make hands sturdier and deliver heavier punches.
Erchian Dagger; summon:
Summon the dagger by using energy (uses energy overtime to maintain physical form). Amplifies effects of dagger skills.
...
Allen finished writing and placed the coal pencil on top of the drawer and read the contents of the notebook.
"Dagger Flash? Was that the skill that Kate used back at the woods?", Allen pondered.
He then looked at the Firm Fists and thought, 'Probably when I get unarmed, this will come in handy.'
As for the third one, Erchian Dagger, he already used summoned it once when he was walking home last night, but only lasted more or less than a second.
Now, Allen was wondering about what kind of energy that these technoques used. Was it just the energy of the body because he felt fatigue after summoning Erchian Dagger? Or maybe something else?
Allen thought of seeking Mr. Sanchez, who seem to know a lot for help, but he rejected the idea in the end. He feared that he might take advantage on his newly learned skills.
In the end, Allen threw the issue at the back of his mind and started practicing Dagger Flash with the knife.
-whoosh- -whoosh- -whoosh-
After making about twenty slashes of different types with a knife, a flash didn't even form even once.
"What's wrong with this? It's not because weapon is too rusty, is it?", Allen pondered and thought of something, 'It's probably because I can't direct the energy yet?'
'Or could I just use my will to command that energy to go towards my hands and to the dagger? Just like how I could summon the Erchian Dagger', he tried the newly found idea as he commanded within his mind to direct the energy towards the knife.
He then suddenly felt warm current flowing inside his body and went towards his hand which was holding the blunt knife. Afterwards, he felt that the blunt knife in his hands became warmer!
"It's working haha! My guess is right after all!", Allen internally commanded to stop the flow of energy and suddenly felt a slight fatigue. However, after doing so, he lost the protection of the energy from the heat that the blunt knife was now emitting.
"Ow! Hot! Hot! Hot!", Allen accidentally slashed towards the wall.
-sou-
A dagger flash was released from the blunt knife, it went towards the wall and pierced through it without any hitch, leaving behind an open, thin, horizontal line.
-boom-
The blunt knife in Allen's hand suddenly exploded into bits! It was made from low quality materials and it wasn't even that sharp anymore due to using it for many times, now, because of the excessive energy, it exploded into bits.
Luckily, even though Allen was hit by some of the parts of the blunt knife, he was not hurt because the knife was already not sharp.
"I think I inserted too much energy.", Allen rubbed his head due to stress, not only the blunt knife was destroyed, even the wall had a very thin open line on it!
'I should've practiced outside instead!'
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone