Crazy Needs
What Tongqiu had actually found familiar were those small little yet of many colors- globes. The same ones that accurately incorporated into his body and merged between each other after the completion of the process of absorption of both, the essential Bow and the essential Arrow.
Tongqiu felt as if doors no longer existed in front of him, not that they opened or dissolved bur rather, that he actually never had any doors blocking his way in the first place. He had always been imagining, creating, illusory doors for himself at every corner of humanity and benevolence as well as communication that showed itself in front of him. Be it opportunities, women/girls, money, status, aid, interaction, solidarity, kindness... he'd always refuse each and every single one of them without even waiting for the other party or the even itself to finish talking/unfold itself.
But it wasn't that he was born like this... he wasn't born without apathy. And he didn't even had someone who could instinctively 'show' him that; so he had to become like so himself, all alone. Whatever it was he encountered, he would only walk forward and then walk back towards any day of his life. Never taking a detour nor thinking of 'what if's', let alone accepting even the slightest amount of joy from anyone or anything.
And so, when he saw not that opportunity, but rather the opportunity for him instead. As he had done a few times in the most important decisions in his life; whether they were about choosing what to eat, what road not to take deep in the night, which people not to talk to -for any reason-... even what do do exactly to save someone... and himself, albeit not completely. Every such decision was followed by Tongqiu thanks to his 'instincts', which by the time such a thing was used in Rising Essence, became more and more indispensable in his life. Slowly, Tongqiu began feeling they weren't mere 'instincts' but rather himself. That's right, he wasn't having a premonition or itch in the skin, it was always him just knowing, nothing else.
It was something he couldn't realize before and currently, couldn't actually comprehend. But it's something that at this moment, right when the Glacial King Ape was completely unmoving and even the mist was still, that he was able to gain understanding on... himself.
However, it wasn't that he needed to understand such things or 'unlock' his mind. It was the fact that Tongqiu realized his own wrongs towards himself in a way he himself didn't even notice that opened his heart. It was the way of how he failed to follow the principles, codes that go along with his nature, with his entire 'being', his existence.
He was... a Fallen. So as to speak.
'Heh.' Tongqiu had formed a grin at the thought of how a goddamn of a coincidence all this was, it truly made him want to start laughing out loud uncontrollably, but he couldn't. The task at hand right now was really stressful, and he couldn't waste this sudden brilliant newfound understanding of his.
As such, the bowstring was pulled. And so, it was tensed at its maximum -the real maximum, one he had not notice didn't completely reach before-, as he let go of the arrow who was seemingly and strangely 'trembling' in excitement.
MPI-SVING~!!!!
PUK-BKOM!!!!!!
-89,888.
*PING*... you've successfully killed an Enlightened grade BOSS Glacial King Ape LV40, as a reward, SP+2,000 and Fame+2,000.
*PING*... you've used strength outside of the limits of your initial-grade class. The damages to your HP have been mitigated by other means. Extra reward, Mind Power+10.
It was a pity that he only tried doing it with one arrow since he himself was not perfectly sure he'd do it without any problem.
At the same moment he received the notification, informing him of the moment the Glacial King Ape's death, Tongqiu's MP and Stamina took a chunk down as they both had lost 75% of it all. The good thing is, with his essential armory, he recovered in no time thanks to the immense max HP from the Glacial King Ape. He also wondered if... that strike was imperfect, hence the backlash... and with the knowledge of his still ignorance towards essential armory... he barely realized he has never been able to see the bow stats, or that of the arrows... he is supposed to know them, right? In any case, he did not currently, and he had the 'instinct' or knowing that he had to figure out... that must be his current path from on.
Putting such thoughts aside, Tongqiu was already sitting down in the ground, as he felt an incoming headache and he didn't wanted any kind of interruption or hindering on his battles. Obviously, such a thing was caused by his class being 'low' graded. As for being intended or a glitch which directly affected Tongqiu, he couldn't give a fucking damn about it, not his problem.
(Author's little Note: He's mad af from the system's inconsistency :'P.)
Not even 12 seconds after, another previous Fallen Summoned was then revived... in theory, the Nameless Fallen Summoner shouldn't be able to reanimate the tenth, but he'd have to find out himself if there's any other shitty trick at the end or not.
And so, his tiring, headache inducing 'workout' or rather, hellish of a workout was initiated. Fortunately, it wouldn't last long, as he would kill one of them with his Tongqiu's Rain Showdown before bombarding them until a notification appeared. Afterwards, since another one would've appeared, he'd have to oneshot this one for real so he entered into the 'abnormal' state and kill it directly. The result -with the little HP they've regenerated-, was that of the most intense 4 minutes of Tongqiu's life. And it was inside of a game at that, not knowing if to feel self-pity or ashamed, Tongqiu finally entered into battle with the last Enlightened previously Fallen Summoned BOSS.
*PING*... you've successfully killed an Enlightened grade BOSS Immortality Pursuing Crane LV40, as a reward, SP+2,000 and Fame+2,000.
At the same time:
*PING*... you have levelled up, now LV28. HP+50, MP+50, Stamina+50 and Mind Power+1. All main basic attributes and other stats have been raised correspondingly to your class.
[Sunborn Minotaur]: Type: Beast(Divine), Grade: Enlightened (just a shy step away from Heavenly grade), Level: 40, HP: 167,250/1,550,000. A divine beast who is born at the Heavenly grade. Naturally, it has a purpose; it varies depending of the Sunborn Minotaur's way of life and nature, but this one's purpose was to guard a certain entrance to ??? ??? to keep it away from the ??? and ??? in...
*PING*... the information has been altered by unknown forces... Mental Power is powerful enough to be able of reading such encrypted messages but the host's Level is too low while the host's Class it's still at the novice stage. Cannot review such information currently.
'As always, the usual...' Ignoring his well-known friend, Tongqiu got in close to the still regenerating Sunborn Minotaur. As he already had his full; and unfortunately he was more than 4,000 SP away from being able to upgrade Battle Frenzy to the max Level 10, Tongqiu made use of his 190 stacks as he used his bow to directly smack the head of the Sunborn Minotaur after climbing its body by stabbing it over and over again with his Sunfacing Brilliant Gladiuses which, for some reason, had some kind of special effect on the Sunborn Minotaur.
-4,714, -4,989, -4,767, -4,530, -4,990, -5,110.
Using his essential bow as a weapon was the same as using his dual gladiuses, except he didn't had the double attack at the same time. The good thing was, however, the fact that just like the arrow- the bow can make any enemy dizzy if bombarded along with Combustion for many, many, many times.
And sure enough, the minotaur was now starting to lean backwards before staggering back a couple tens of meters before finally trip down with his back about to the ground a goodnight kiss.
At the instance the minotaur was starting to fall, Tongqiu made a somersault again, this time more experienced as he jumped 4 meters from his current height making it a total of jumping 9 meters high in the air. Then, he shoot 5 arrows without entering the 'abnormal' state. Three of them were to impulse himself even more upwards, detonating them quite close to him which obviously wouldn't hurt him since the essential weaponry and him are one. Nonetheless, those three arrows did their job nice and clean as it seemed as if Tongqiu was levitating without a problem. His stance was that of a curved bow while from his collar bone to the top of his head, including his arms, were directly facing the still falling down Sunborn Minotaur. The other two arrows accurately 'dodged', one passing by its neck to the left while the other passed by its neck to the right, after they were 5 meters behind his nape -even with the minotaur still falling down- with utter precision, Tongqiu issued the command to explode.
SHCK-BBPAM SHCK-BBPAM
Two somewhat muffled out-of-this-world explosions came to be as the Sunborn Minotaur's neck apparently broke off as its head went directly above its collar bone. Then, Tongqiu's eyes became extraordinarily fierce yet had a vast calmness to them.
He entered the 'abnormal' state as his intense focus was aimed right at the center of the minotaur's head.
The sound of a crude bowstring being pulled resonated across the entire floor.
MPI-SVING!!!!
And the unbelievable sound of the arrow let loose from such a bowstring was next, right before the reality-breaking sound of the explosion that it itself seemed to contain an unfathomable art to it. As if all the heavenly bodies had resonated through the universe for less than a nanosecond, before a dark-matter like destruction erased all existence from a section of the universe itself as it kept on consuming colors, meaning, beliefs and creation.
PUK-BKOM
-166,998.
Silence subdued the surrounding atmosphere as Tongqiu roughly landed on the ground with his two legs, barely bending his knees the tiniest amount possible.
'Huff, huff... huff... huff.' He was, however, fatigued mentally; depleted of energy; and finally, worn out from all the rough 'caresses' from the unending amount of BOSSes.
If the system could talk, its chatting with Tongqiu right now would go as follows:
System: "You wanted BOSSes right? DIDN'T YOU WANTED BOSSESS?!!!"
Tongqiu: (._.) ( l: ) ( .-. ) ( :l ) (._.)
***
*PING*... you've successfully killed an Enlightened grade BOSS Sunborn Minotaur LV40, as a reward, SP+2,000 and Fame+2,000.
*PING*... the Lord grade BOSS Nameless Fallen Summoner has been depleted of its entire mana pool. It's trying to escape!
'Oh, fuck. No. No. Es-ca-pe. For. You.' Being with at his own one's last legs, Tongqiu aimed his bow. He thought about using one arrow from how tired he was but... he suddenly thought: 'No rights to restrain oneself.' As he closed his eyes, then the second arrow appeared on his right hand, before finally letting loose at a 1/3-pull bowstring.
Wooosh!
-22,340.
The Nameless Fallen Summoner, besides having only 1 HP, had no defense of any kind whatsoever. It even gave Tongqiu an easy Critical Hit Attack as well as a Pierce Hit Attack.
Tongqiu's eyes were sleepy, so his eyes went into a slit as he looked away for a few seconds, he was really tired. But since there was no notification, there was no rest for the wicked.
Tongqiu looked back at the thing, his eyes somewhat bloody as veins were extremely red colored, as if about to delicately burst at any moment. And what he saw was a Fallen Summoner with an arrow penetrated into its wood-writhing-like skin right below its collar bone, or where a collar bone should be located at anyways.
From the wound, light blue energy moved through the Fallen Summoner as it had its body arched with its torso sticking out. As if trying to take the arrow away from itself, its hands and limbs did their best to move around with the intent of taking it out. Or so did Tongqiu thought, in the next moment, the Fallen Summoner actually grasped the arrow as its 'hands' and arms started dissipating away slowly, as if it had touched something it was not worthy of. Then straight away pushed deeper into itself.
A cry coming from nowhere but at the same time from the Nameless Fallen Summoner resounded across hundreds of meters, instantly, the other Fallen Summoners also started 'howling' to the sky and towards the Nameless Fallen Summoner. It was... like witnessing a rebellion. But instantly after just a mere few seconds of the howling, which Tongqiu found it inspiring, a shadowy, almost completely impossible to witness- hand came from the roof as it made a grasping motion towards the Nameless Fallen Summoner before pulling backwards into the sky. The Nameless Fallen Summoner, however, didn't bulge an inch; or at least its physical body. For at the moment the hand started pulling back into the sky towards the roof, it seemed to carry along a translucent azure and extremely fiery-like energy that was obviously from the Nameless Fallen Summoner. Before disappearing altogether the same way as it came.
*PING*... - ... - ... Nameless Fallen Summoner has been successfully slayed. SP+10,000 and Fame+10,000.
*PING*... the floor's progress has been updated. Objectives: [Kill Fallen Summoners: 1/15].
Tongqiu: !!!
With frowned brows and his mouth lifting ever so slightly in anger, Tongqiu thought: 'Co-could it be... that I could only see it thanks to my Mental Power?- No, it must be... did it also take the Nameless Fallen Summoner?'
Crazy. This was a game with crazy plot. Just who the fuck were those endless <??? and ???>? What the fuck they wanted and how come they could just do as they wished? So many questions easily forming themselves in one's head...
At that moment, right after the fiery-like translucent azure energy disappeared into the roof, Tongqiu 'heard' with his senses a shocking and extremely fearful sound of lightning striking without stop, for minutes. During the whole event of 'listening' he didn't bulge an itch, scared that those long in the distance resounding lightning strikes would not aim at whatever moved around. The other Fallen Summoners seemed to share his thoughts as they also stopped moving. But then Tongqiu looked towards the nearest Fallen Summoner, a couple hundred meters away from him, and he managed to 'see' that its vacant eyes... contained excitement?!
Since they were passive unless you attacked them directly with a challenging stare, Tongqiu didn't worry about forcefully enduring another tough, long battle. Suddenly, that Fallen Summoner glanced at his eyes, Tongqiu obviously noticed this as he immediately gazed at the Fallen Summoner, with indifference as well as carrying some understanding bright sheen in his eyes. The Fallen Summoner turned its head away as its 'eyes' became very much Fallen-like.
'Sigh...'
Tongqiu said nothing else as he directly logged off. It was already 11:50 AM and Tongqiu was sure such a good sports woman like Diana would be early.
Tongqiu was seated on his bed as he moved his hands to press on his face while massaging it a little. When he suddenly felt a piercing pain close to his eyes and below his eyebrows as he immediately and carefully took his hands away from his face.
'What. The. Fuck.' Tongqiu's eyes went instantly lifeless as he gazed at the clearly broken fingertips of all around his gauntlets.
'Uuwaaaaaaaaagh!!' Childish Tongqiu appeared for a couple tens of seconds before he picked up his phone to see two messages from 'Tarn Diana':
"Hello Mr Yun, I hope you're having a good morning, please make sure to eat properly. We won't do much today but instead we'll do more talking and planning. Once the gym at your villa's is finished being built, we can engage in the... 'real stuff'.
Tongqiu obviously couldn't see her, but he was sure she blushed at writing those words. He is such a bad influence...
He read the last message:
"Mr Yun, I'll be arriving 5 minutes before the agreed time. Could you be the one to receive me? I personally don't like formal relationships, it's better if we get closer as a personal trainer and pupil. Of course, if you don't mind."
She didn't used any emoji or the like, which Tongqiu gave her huge amount of brownie points for. Anyway, this relationship with her was turning quite the unexpected from talking alone. Tongqiu had the feeling some unavoidable 'mistakes' would be happening across the following days.
He looked at the hour, 11:54 am... 'Fuck.'
He hastily left towards the villa's entrance.
***
Beep, beep!
As a little disappointed Tarn Diana was waiting somewhat uncomfortably at the entrance of the village with about 16 different suitcases. Eight of them were small-sized while 6 were big and the other 2 were really big. She obviously came here by transport but, she was still alone, in the cold, until now.
When she saw a maddened car made specifically for traversing small distances for places such as a villa that could have difficult terrain, driven by Tongqiu, she couldn't help but smile radiantly when she realized he was all worked up and even sweating a little as well as somewhat exasperated.
"HUUUUUFFF~~ H-h-hi, ehem, sorry for the delay. It wasn't intentional or that I forgot, I swear~" Of course it wasn't, halfway through here, he had to go back since he forgot that since she was staying, she'd naturally have had brought luggage with her. Dummy Tongqiu had to go back and take one of those specialized cars to hurry here in a jiffy.
"U-uh, mn. I understand, thank you, for showing consideration." She felt as if her previous uncomfortable feeling was instead replaced by warmth covering her whole body as she kept on looking at Tongqiu with her eyes clearly 'smiling' and her mouth restraining from forming an actual smile. Obviously, she wouldn't let the feeble and emaciated Tongqiu do the work for a strong, independent, responsible and warr- oh, and there goes Tongqiu carrying one of the biggest suitcases and faking a 'not a problem' gaze towards her as he almost fainted on the spot from the excruciating pain of exhaustion.
She then noticed that he didn't had anything else besides light pajamas and a long-sleeved t-shirt, nothing else. And with this climate being specially abundantly cold in the morning, she couldn't help but worriedly ask him: "Wait, Mr Yun are you... not feeling cold? It wouldn't be alright nor safe coming out here and doing too much work for your body with such low temperature."
She was really polite and professional, and what did she got in return? Tongqiu's dumb flirting? Tonqiu's dumb flirting; then, Tongqiu answered: "Ah... yea I do. But don't worry, if I start showing hypothermia symptoms I have you here to hug me tightly until we arrive at the entrance, do I not?"
His last sentence was spoken with a hint of deviousness that Tarn Diana wasn't familiar with, hence she didn't quite catch his stupidity right away.
Hence, she answered, still concerned and aware of the unnecessary troubles: "Ah! Mr Yun, please behave. Your health is truly way too feeble to play around with it, you should really- wait, your breath... you haven't eaten yet?! Sigh... never mind, if... if you really need it though, I... I'll hug you then, just to be sure."
Even though Tarn Diana was about to fall into a small fit of rage, she contained herself as it was a problem, but it was not unsolvable. She could do a 'little' meal for him, and with luck on their side he won't have a need of intense healing in a few hours...
Of course, she didn't know what kind of 'medicine' he was given a couple days before. Not that it mattered, since her intentions were good natured.
Without much more chatter, Tongqiu simply waited for Tarn Diana to put all the suitcases anywhere she could find a spot inside the car before he drove towards the main entrance of the residential area.
Tongqiu behaved, not like a gentleman which he would never be, but as an adequate and principled person. That, without mentioning the constant glances over her. Though inoffensive and friendly, that little smile when it was obvious she noticed when she either looked back at him in inquire as her eyes widen a little or when she pretends not to notice but after 2 seconds, can't help herself as her eyes 'naughtily' disobeyed her and stole glances at him to see if he was still looking.
'That smile... that...!! That devious smile! So that- ah, before when he...' Proud, professional personal trainer poor little Tarn Diana was slowly having her innocence snatched away from her every being as she now emitted an irresistible charm from her pinkish face. Which then transformed into an onslaught of redness on her cheeks as her nose turned slightly pink when she noticed once again that this time, Tongqiu was aware of her little blush with a silly grin plastered on his face. It was cold, but cold doesn't really do that, maybe it'll turn red sure, but not an exotic pink.
...
