Al blinked his eyes. Then he rubbed them. He even slapped himself but the words in front of him didn't change.

 

 

A pickpocket skill. A fucking pickpocket skill. That was all he got from this entire ordeal. Well he would have to go through it regardless but the fact that he had been awarded with such an irrelevant and useless skill really grinded on his nerves. System skills had a higher benchmark to reach to qualify as a skill and could only be increased through constant practice or pouring in exuberant amount of QP. That's how difficult it was to acquire and train skills. Skills were even more important than stats and now he was awarded one. One that was almost useless and irrelevant in his current profession. Maybe in the past days of his orphan arc he might have put these to good use and gotten himself some food or money but now he was in the combat profession. Nobody had any pockets on their armour! What was he going to pick? Dirt?! 

 

 

It was exactly how he thought it would be, no it was worse. He even had to distract the target and make physical contact with them. He was a commoner and a former street rat, not a lot of people were exactly keen on coming in physical contact with him. Speaking of skills he remembered seeing one on his status screen before he got distracted by the quest.

 

 

Al cheered up a little seeing his first skill level up already after a fight, though he had a sneaking suspicion that the difficulty in leveling would only get harder and harder from now on. From checking out the skills related to swordsmanship levels in the shop, it seemed there were 7 levels to it. Starting from Basic ⇒ Journeyman ⇒ Intermediate as simple skills but to advance after that you needed to develop or purchase a style from the shop. There was almost every style imaginable in there attached to a maddening price. He even saw Djem So, Ataru and Juuyo in the list of styles. That was Anakin, Yoda and Mace Windu's style! He couldn't wait to get a black cloak and mask and go around cosplaying as Darth Vader! He had to start saving up for those skills.

 

After having your own style of fighting you would advance to Advanced (no pun intended) ⇒ Expert ⇒ Master ⇒ Grandmaster. Al doubted he would ever reach the grandmaster stage considering the price to advance form just the last stage of Master to Grandmaster was 1 billion QP. All he had right now was the meager sum of 100 QP he got from his latest quest. Which made him even more desperate for another quest so he could gather enough QP to upgrade [Pickpocket] to level 2. He knew it wasn't really smart spending all that QP on a useless and irrelevant skill but his nature as a miser wouldn't let him miss out on a 'Limited time offer'. His habits developed from living frugally as a uni student with student loan repayments, practically compelled him to make the purchase. Besides he wouldn't mind some extra coin whenever he could get them. 

 

Thinking about extra, he had a few extra unallocated stat points he needed to allocate. In hindsight he should have allocated it in the start of the fight but in his defense he was quite new to the whole system thing and the impending quest had distracted him.

 

 

'Oh! There's two of them now!' Al exclaimed as he saw the two blinking unallocated stat points in his status window. Now it was time to get serious. Al didn't know or understand how stat points were gained or awarded. It did seem like he gained it along with the increase in his skill levels but he didn't gain any for [Pickpocket], so it seemed unlikely. This meant his stat points were very important and he couldn't go dumping them around in every stat. He knew strength and speed were important for swordsmanship and his vitality was too big of an advantage to ignore as it seemed like it was related to both his health, toughness and endurance at the same time. As for Mana, it was clear he had to invest in it because all his skills and magic related abilities would be powered by it. In fact he didn't even know how much MP he had. So he tried to repeatedly tap and poke the MANA Stat. After the 12th poke, the system responded.

 

 

'Oh how very kind of you, you fucking cunt.' Al cursed spitefully at the system that seemed to be intent at making his life difficult, though he was starting to understand the nature of his nemesis much better now. 

 

 

'Wow, that's fucking helpful. It's just the same as my Mana stat- wait does that mean that stupid stealing skill costs almost half my MP?!' Al couldn't help but wonder if this was some sort of prank by the system. However Al was wiser now to System's action, he now knew the more he got angry the happier system would be so he just moved his focus to his unallocated stat points. For now he decided to add them to his speed and perception to round up his stats. That was going to be his strategy till hopefully all of them reached 15 and then he would focus on STR and MANA with secondary focus on VIT and AGI.

 

 

The effect was not as pronounced as he expected it to be for AGI. He did feel a bit more light and power coiling in his limbs. However he did like the way his sense got more better. It was like he was seeing and hearing a muffled and dim world but now it was more clearer. It was like transitioning from 360p to 480p. Satisfied with his current status window he waved his hand at it and closed it. Another uncomfortable feature of the system was that it didn't recognise any mental or verbal command other than opening the status screen. He had to physically navigate it like a touchscreen unlike other Systems who had that convenient feature built in. He in fact had to buy it as an add-on system feature from the shop at 3500 QP for Voice commands and 7500 QP for mental commands. 

 

Al looked around and found out it was noon now. Jory should be returning soon from his riding lessons. Al had to sit this one out thanks to his injuries which still hurt but were not as uncomfortable as they were before. Al's body was quite good at recovering from injuries, his body had been tempered and he himself had gotten used to getting bruises during his fights in the slums. Old Tom had been watching the fight and did comment that he had 'bones as tough as a giant' considering how many hits he took to his sides and emerged without any broken ones. 

 

Sure enough in a few minutes Jory was heading towards the haystack Al was lazing around on. 

 

"Argh, I hate riding lessons." Jory complained as he sat on the hale stack near him. Al handed him the clean rag he had purchase on his first day and a glass of water he had sneaked from Old Tom's barrel of water when he went prepare the horses for the lesson. "Thanks, the horses stink and riding for a long time always messes up your back and thighs. You're gonna hate it." 

 

"That's because of the saddle they use here. I'm from a town called Rider's Rest. The stable where I used to sleep at, the highborn kept their horses there when they stayed in the town. They had these special saddles that felt like cushions of fur. I helped make a few of those before they kicked me out for breaking the tooth of stable masters boy. The horses there were treated like royalty. A scented bath every week and wash every 3 days. I think the owner was a highborn himself though he never confirmed it." Al smiled as he recalled his early days when he was anxious and afraid.

 

"You never told me you were a stable boy, Al." Jory smiled as he looked at Al with fascination.

 

"I've been a lot of things and done a lot of odd jobs. The last one and the one I invested the most in was owning my own vegetable and toys cart. I sold all sorts of veggies and my toys were best in the entire North. I was quite successful you know." Al was quite proud of his achievement, especially the dolls. He had always been good at handicrafts and practical art and his prior experience on his projects helped him make really great dolls considering the poor quality of materials available to him.  

 

"Really? You made dolls and sold vegetables? How'd you end up here?" Jory seemed to be quite interested in his story now that they had grown closer thanks to the fight.

 

"Well guards were chasing a thief across the town, you know the usual. Unfortunately though he overturned my cart to delay them. Then the guards broke it in hurry. Couldn't even get compensation for that so I had to leave town cause my debtors were quite..."overzealous" in their ways to get back their money. Rick from the Outer Guard actually roped me in for the job. Then Tom, the Outer Guards captain, sent me here to Ser Rodrik and Ser Rodrik sent me to you."

 

"Well I'm glad he did, Al." Jory smiled, "It's nice to talk to someone who isn't trying to insult you, you know. And someone who actually has balls."

 

Al chuckled at that. Jory was really something. Al didn't think he would be able to act with such maturity and stay strong when faced with such an hostile environment. Street life was rough but straightforward, dog eat dog. There was a sort of comfort in that but this sort of bullying was a lot more indirect and convoluted which took a toll on your psyche if you didn't know have anyone to help you. The fact that Jory was still able to maintain his kindness and gentleness despite being victim of this was really admirable.

 

"By the way, how old are you, Al?" Jory suddenly asked as if he remembered something, "I thought you were younger than me but you do seem a lot older now that I talk to you."

 

"I turned seven 3 months ago. What about you?"

 

"What?! You're seven?! How?! Why?!" Jory exclaimed looking shell-shocked, "What kind of seven nameday old has a body like that?! You're almost as tall as me."

 

"Nah I'm still a head smaller but yeah that's how it's been since I was born." Al was quite amused when he saw how devastated Jory looked.

"This is just not fair." He huffed as he started comparing their heights. Al was 147cm (~4"10') tall while Jory stood at 160cm (5"3').

"Well, life's not fair and what are you complaining about? You got that handsome mug as compensation. Why do you even need height when girls are going to be flocking to you just by seeing your face? Do you know how much money we could scam out of noble ladies if you flirted a little?"

 

"Who cares about the girls? Girls are annoying, I'd rather have a longer reach." Jory scrunched up his eyebrows as if the thought of wasting time on such frivolous activities offended him.

 

"What?! You crazy bastard I care about the girls! I do!" Al almost steamed out his ears listening to the outrageous comment by the pretty boy. As a former average joe his honor would not allow him to listen to this popular guy hurting the sentiments of men of culture. "Arghh! This face is wasted on you! My heart is hurting."

 

"What?! You're only seven, why do you care about the girls? Just focus on your swordsmanship and you may be able to impress someone blind."

 

"That's it you prick. It's on!" Al lunged at him and playfully tackled him to the hay stack and started pinching his cheeks.

 

"Ow-ow-ow. Let go stupid." Jory cried out in pain but Al just laughed like a maniac before he started laughing uncontrollably while squirming because Jory had used the forbidden Jutsu! The tickling-no-jutsu! However not willing to be outdone Al retaliated with the same, from there on it was a nuclear warfare of tickling, wrestling, and pinching. By the time they were done they were both holding their stomachs that hurt from the laughing and wiping their tears. Al couldn't help but grin. He had never had this much fun, even in his childhood. Being with Jory made him a lotmore happier and carefree than usual, which may also be due to the changes in his personality since coming here. Al was never this happy, impulsive or carefree but it seemed his body was having a effect on his usual emotions and behaviour but strangely enough he didn't mind it one bit.

 

He looked towards Jory, who was grinning as he panted in exhaustion and occasionally giggled, and Al's eyes widened. Jory's shirt had been pulled aside in their brief tussle exposing the upperpart of his chest which was wrapped in stripes of cloth fashioned into a bandage. Al quickly moved his eyes to Jory's throat and the suddenly the lack of Adam's apple on Jory's throat stood out quite distinctly. Slowly all the pieces of information were being brought together in his head. Effeminate face, lack of interest in girls, no Adam's apple, slender body and bandaged chest. Al quickly looked away.

 

"Thanks, Al. I had fun." Al looked towards Jory, who was flushed and grinning brightly with sparkling bright eyes as sweat rolled down that narrow and cute nose. Al found himself mesmerised in the deep obsidian eyes that seemed to reflect everything. 

 

"Me too." Al said breathlessly but not because of exertion. He quickly looked away, "I had fun and it fucking hurts now. Did you really have to tickle me so hard?"

 

"Yep!" Jory said popping the 'p' and then started giggling, which suddenly started to sound cuter now.

 

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, smartass. One day I'll be the one laughing." Al tried to hide his conflicting emotions with a gruff tone and it seemed to work considering how Jory didn't seem to notice. He just hoped he wouldn't do anything to mess up their friendship.