Chapter 29: 29 - Test
This ship, unlike the one Iroh came in, didn't lower an anchor but continued all the way to the shore of the beach before a bunch of sand lifted and stopped it in its tracks as if it were nothing but a toy.
From it jumped an old man wearing standard earth kingdom clothes, but with just one look it was obvious that he was far from ordinary, for Levi at least, he could tell that under those clothes was a body that most young men could only dream of.
Cracking a big smile towards their group he started walking towards them, "HAHAHA IF IT ISN'T MY OLD FRIENDS, IT HAS BEEN A LONG TIME" He said shouting, Levi felt that he also meant him when he said "My old friends.".
He knew why he would say it like that, the person before him was one of the few remaining people, maybe the only one, who had met Avatar Aang and they were close friends before he disappeared, 'Sadly you will be sorely disappointed old man.' thought Levi with a guilty look as he watched bumi getting closer.
"Indeed it has my friend, and I see that you still haven't changed one bit." Said Iroh with his usual kind smile.
"Of course he hasn't, at this old age there is no longer any hope for him." said Tenzin.
"Ouch you hurt my feelings." said Bumi with a sad voice as he held his chest before cracking out laughing, "HAHAHAHA I'M JUST KIDDING YOU'RE 100% RIGHT IT'S TO LATE FOR ME TO CHANGE HAHAHAHA." The other 2 old men could only have a helpless look as they looked at him, as for Levi he was just standing there watching him not knowing what to do.
"Enough of this, now that we are all here let's get to the important business and get it all over with." said Tenzin with Iroh nodding.
"Yeah you're right." said Bumi with a serious look suddenly appearing on his face, finally not shouting after he came here.
…
…
…
They all stood there staring at each other for a moment, Levi could see that his master was almost out of his wits end with veins popping on his head, thankfully Iroh spoke soon after.
"Sigh, here you go." he said, sighing as he reached behind his back and pulled out another bag of tea leaves, handing it to Bumi.
'Where the hell is he hiding all of those tea bags.' wondered Levi, if he didn't know better he'd think that Iroh had an inventory.
Taking the leaves from Iroh's hand, Bumi smelled them first before stuffing them in his robes as if hiding a treasure. Finally turning to Levi, Bumi first looked at him before bringing his face dangerously close to his, looking him straight in the eyes while rubbing his beard.
'Damn it you bag of old bones haven't you heard about personal space before.' thought Levi but he didn't say it out loud, he had seen Bumi fight in the show and he didn't want to experience that.
"Hmm it doesn't seem to be him." said Bumi after he was done observing Levi likely referring to Aang before finally pulling away from him, making him heave a sigh of relief
"Anyhow, we are not here to ask for my opinion so let's just get this over with." said Bumi in a hurried tone as he clapped his hands, carefully hid his tea leaves on his clothes and punched the ground.
'He's only here for the tea leaves isn't he?.' All three other people present couldn't help but think that as they stared at Bumi, but they couldn't voice out their opinion as the ground they were standing on started to slowly descend, surprising Levi, the other three though seemed to be expecting it.
Soon it stopped and Levi found himself in an underground dark room with 1 door on each of the four walls. It was impossible for a normal person to see in such an environment as evidenced by Iroh lighting a fire above his palm, of course it made no difference to Levi either way.
On each one of the doors there was the symbol of a white lotus flower confirming Levi's suspicion from before.
****
In one of the underground rooms sat the three old men on one side and Levi on the other facing each other, between them was a table with various things spread on it from knives to toys to scrolls there were dozens of stuff on it.
Deciding to use his observations on them out of curiosity Levi got the following results,
[Scroll: A Scroll belonging to a previous unknown avatar, recorded in it is parts of his journey]
[Short knife: A random ordinary knife]
[Wooden toy: A toy belonging to a previous unknown avatar when he/she was a kid]
…..
Of all the things present, only the scroll and the toy were possessions of previous avatars, everything else was just random stuff.
Levi had figured out what all this was about a while ago but the three old men didn't know that and proceeded to explain it to him, "So boy do you know why you're here?." asked Tenzin
"Why is an 8-year-old little kid secretly led underground on a random island by three old men? No I don't master" said Levi in the most innocent tone he can manage making the three people present chock. Or maybe just two as Bumi seemed to just be trying his hardest to hold back his laughter.
"Sigh, we'll get to that later, for now why don't you try picking some items off the table, don't think hard about it just follow your instinct boy." said Tenzin choosing not to address Levi's accusations for now.
Thinking about it for a while Levi decided that he might as well make them suspect he was the avatar, it'll make things way much easier for him and provide him with free training from two other master benders at least.
As for what'll happen later he can just pretend it was all a coincidence, and for that he will also pick some random items.
Looking at the table Levi picked up the scroll of the previous avatar first making them pay more attention, after that he chose the knife making their shoulders drop in disappointment and lastly he picked the toy making their eyes go wide, after that he picked up a wooden fan which was also an item of a previous avatar and also a random cup that might have just been laying around in the underground hideout before this.
By the time he was done he could literally feel their excitement and confusion radiating as if they didn't know what to do from here on, almost making him regret his choice, 'No, this is for the best, I plan to make changes that might affect future events and to survive I need to be as strong as possible and for that I need training and a lot of it, this is the best way, later when Aang appears I can just say that it was a coincidence.' thought Levi steeling his resolve.
Looking at the three old men he could see all sorts of emotions in their eyes, from shock to happiness to excitement to confusion, to a little bit of sadness in Bumi's eyes, probably thinking that Aang might have already died and reincarnated.
"Sigh, let me just get straight to the point Kid." said Tenzin, "The things on the table in front of us are a bunch of random items mixed in with some possessions of the previous avatars."
"What!?, why would possession of previous avatars be here, and why did you make me choose from them…don't tell me that I am….." said Levi with a shocked face giving the best performance of his life.
[Ding
…
]
A notification came that Levi chose to immediately ignore, it wasn't the time for that.
Nodding Iroh spoke, "Indeed due to your immense talent and the skills you possess at your age we suspected that you were the avatar but we weren't certain, this test was meant to clear our uncertainty."
"And seeing the items that you picked didn't ease our uncertainty in the least.'' said Bumi with a tired tone in his voice.
Looking at the items he picked then at his master Levi asked in a serious tone of voice, "So what now master!?."
Exchanging a look with his friends they seemed to come to a decision as Tenzin sighed and replied, "Sigh, we don't know brat, we had our hopes yes but we honestly expected you to either pass entirely or fail completely, but you have picked both previous avatar items and some random ones we didn't plan for this."
"For now we will do the best we can to protect and guide you until you're strong enough. That's our mission after all, as for what you want to do after that and if you aren't the avatar it is up to you, we will have achieved our mission and will have no regrets."
Nodding Levi got up, cubed his hands and bowed, "Thank you master I understand what I should do." he said with a serious tone of voice.
Nodding in approval Tenzin got up and said, "Alright you're still young so there isn't much you should worry about, for now we should head back to the tribe, we can talk about your extra training later on." he said as he turned to his friends.
"We will stay here for a while, I am really tired of all the politics and power plays of the fire nation and would like to take a breather.'' said Iroh with a tired expression, Bumi also nodded agreeing with him.
Nodding in understanding, Tenzin spoke, "You do that, but do you mind getting us out of here first?."
Nodding bumi twisted his hands in their direction and brought them above his head making the ground rise with them on it and bringing them up to the surface of the island.
As they were ascending Levi checked his system panel searching for the notification he received previously.
[Due to a specific action a new skill had been unlocked]
[Acting (Active) -Level 1: The user can use his superior acting abilities to deceive and lie to other people, the higher the level the better the user is at acting and the higher his chances of deception are]
[Acting levelled up +1]
[Acting levelled up +1]
[Acting levelled up +1]
[Acting levelled up +1]
[Acting - level 8: ....]
Seeing the skill he unlocked and how fast it had levelled up, shooting straight to level 8, Levi's eye twitched, he knew he had been lying and deceiving a lot since he came to this world, his family, master, his tribesmen…etc, but he didn't think it was that bad that. Sighing Levi made a mental note to try being a more honest and straightforward person from now on.
***
Back in the underground room, Iroh and Bumi were still sitting on opposite sides of the table and sipping their tea.
"So what do you think of the boy my friend." asked Iroh with a natural facial expression, although there was a slight smile present there, most likely due to the flavour of his tea.
"I can't tell if he's the friend I made almost a century ago or not, but one thing is for certain, the kid is a monster." said Bumi with a rare serious expression on his face as he looked at Iroh who was also nodding.
"That he is, he's years ahead of his peers, so much that it's frightening, and he will only continue to get stronger the older he is." said Iroh before continuing, "The best we can do for now is guide and teach him so that he may be a force for good instead of evil even if he isn't the avatar a kid like him need to be nurtured and guided well, this world can't handle another calamity like the fire nation." said Iroh with a guilty and shameful look on his face at the last part.
"I don't think we need to worry about that my friend hahaha." said Bumi laughing and back to his cheerful mood which seemed to lift Iroh's mood as well, "I've seen a lot during my old life, good and evil, heroes and villains, I've seen them all, and although that kid may not be a saint but he's certainly not a devil. That I am sure of, so rest assured."
"Sigh, I hope you're right my old friend." said Iroh sighing before going back to sipping his tea in peace with Bumi doing the same, both not talking after that, only enjoying the peaceful silence.
***
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