Breaking The Ordinary (Ongoing) | #wattys2019

NOT STRONG ENOUGH

It was almost the morning. Ethan didn't notice the time inside the arena. He didn't level up but he still got plenty of experience and knowledge. He didn't have any knowledge whatsoever about all this so this was a good trip for him. As he was deep in thought, he felt a tug on his sleeve. Just then he remembered that Jenny was also with him.

“Oh yea I took you with me too in a hurry haha. I didn't even ask if you wanted to go or stay.” just as Ethan was about to continue, Jenny interrupted him.

“It's okay i didn't want to stay plus i lost so it's fine. I wanted to ask you something actually.”

Ethan noticed that Jenny was still talking in that serious tone but her eyes were wavering.

“Sure go ahead ask anything. I have nothing much to hide anyways.”, just as Ethan said that, he saw Jenny relaxing a bit.

“A-are you really okay with being me?”

“....”

What?

Ethan’s processor stopped working completely. What is she saying?

“I m-mean, are y-you really not affected by my curse?”Jenny asked as she was looking at Ethan with expectant eyes. No matter how much Ethan be dumb, he understood her point. He didn't know how many hardships she went through, but people were calling her demon and she was just 14! So he had some understanding of how she has been living.

Ethan held her hands and looked directly in her eyes. Noticing his gaze, Jenny couldn't help but look away.

“See I'm still standing here. Without loss of any limb or spitting blood. Not everyone is weak, you know. I don't know your circumstances but the people who couldn't even stand beside you are weaklings. You can count on me from now on."

Hearing all this, Jenny really felt like something melted inside her. She couldn't help but hold his stand with more force.

“Un!” , Jenny gave a really bright smile while looking at him. Ethan  just noticed that she really was a beauty to behold. Ethan couldn't help but ruffle her hair and continued walking with her.

It really was a happy moment but both of them didn't notice that far away there was a guy standing in a long black coat. Just as Ethan and Jenny left, that man pulled out a round bony white colored emblem. There were two snakes entwining each other. It gave a grostique feeling.
It was Bill, the subordinate of lord Benjamin. He was sent to monitor Jenny and now that he saw someone able to withstand her curse, he had to report it back. That was his duty. He was really royal to his lord. His lord was omnipotent in his eyes. No one was stronger than his lord!

Just as he crushed the emblem, a white undead appeared that had the same size as a regular human. This was a messenger used by lord Benjamin.

“Tell lord that someone was able to withstand her curse and she was being a lot close to him. I'm not sure about his strength but he can't be stronger than me.” just as he finished speaking, the undead messenger turned into dust. After doing all this, Bill also left the area.

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“So I'm not going to ask you who you are, or what you do but if you ever feel like you're not strong enough alone, just ring me or just go to Macloy family and ask for me or a girl named Emma. I might not look like it but I'm really strong and I'm not boasting.”, listening to Ethan saying all this, jenny felt really warm.

She really wanted to go with Ethan. She didn't know Ethan that well but she still wanted to trust him. He made her feel like ...home.

“Un..” After nodding, Jenny didn't stay and just left like that. Ethan didn't say anything either. He knew he wasn't strong enough right now.

Thinking logically, to put a curse in her this strong couldn't be someone easy to deal with. Plus he saw that night, the system showed that she was the subordinate of lord Benjamin. He didn't know who this lord Benjamin was or how strong he was. But he knew he wasn't strong enough to face him yet. He had to get stronger.

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It was already morning when Ethan returned home. As he got freshed, he thought back to his fights in the arena and also about the other abilities. He didn't need any kind of movement technique for the time being as he had the ability [jumper]. His attacking power also got stronger due to the [aura coating].

But after the fight with henry, he knew he needed an ability to attack from a distance. He was good at close combat and with his ability, it was perfect. But anyone with abilities like [deflector] and Henry's [crystallization] got him thinking. He couldn't fight them with his old style. So he had to improvise.

Leveling up was a must. As he needed stat points for any kind of improvement. And on the other hand he also was interested in bloodline. But as the system wasn't explaining that to him, he stopped paying attention to it.
“System show me my stats.”

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[stats]

Name: Ethan

Level: 43
Mission points: 10
Stat points: 2

Aura: 33%
Strength: 90
Agility: 35
Vitality: 30
Intelligence: 12

[inventory]
Abilities:

Jumper

Skills:

Illusion tiger
Low healing (upgradeable)
Shadow step
Aura coating

Items:

Avatar (one time use only)
Stone breaker
Foxy mask
Additional rewards (requirements not met)
Pen of ignes
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Looking at his stats and inventory, Ethan knew he had to level up for sure. These stats weren't enough to deal with henry. And still there were a lot more people than henry.

Looking at his skills, there were plenty of them which he never used and actually there wasn't any need for them. Just as he was thinking of what to do about these skills….

beep...

[host can sell things that he deems useless to system and get mission points]

Oh so i can do this? So the system is nice after all hahah!

“Yo system are you by some chance a tsundere bahaha?’ Ethan couldn't help but imagine a cute anime girl pouting while saying “it's nothing like that you fool!!”

Ethan knew it wasn't the time to joke around. He had to do anything to get stronger.

***********