Chapter 12: 10 – Chaos and Abyss [5]

"Your goals, they're... the noblest of goals I've ever seen."

Glenn heaved a sigh of relief. However, that didn't last long.

"But the extent you're willing to go to achieve them is... concerning. However, it's nothing that can't be fixed with time and experience. Surely, you'll change your way of thinking after you really feel the burden of taking a life."

"Sorry, but that's not happening," Glenn suddenly blurted out.

"Bahahahaha! That's what they always say."

'What the actual fuck? What's wrong with my mouth today?'

"What the actual fuck? What's wrong with my mouth today?" 

"Oh, right." Kevin face palmed himself. "I forgot to deactivate my Skill. Sorry, newbie."

With a snap of Kevin's fingers, Glenn felt that whatever that was that had made him say his thoughts out loud had disappeared.

'So it's a Skill that makes you say every one of your thoughts out loud... how scary.'

But it wasn't as scary as the fact that ghosts—or well, souls—like him and Katherine could affect living beings with their Skills... or at least affect Glenn only, he thought.

Unaware of Glenn's thoughts, Kevin patted him on on shoulder and smiled. "Very well. You're worthy of my martial arts, at least more worthy than the previous holders of it. I look forward to teaching you."

"Likewise," said Glenn as he removed Kevin's hand from his shoulder and shook it. "This is what we do when we reach an agreement, by the way. No one pats people's shoulders to signify acceptance anymore. Well, there are rare cases, but you'll more often than not find yourself shaking hands."

"I see..." Kevin nodded with a smirk. "...Trying to make yourself feel better, huh?"

"...!"

"I've met people like you before. You feel bad for making me train you without giving me anything back, so you tried to at least teach me at least something to feel better."

'Th-That's way off the mark!'

It was right on the mark, though Glenn would never admit it, even to himself.

"Wh-What are you saying?! I'm not—"

"Enough talking!" Kevin suddenly shouted, interrupting him, "1000 jabs, now!"

"Right now?"

"Yes! Time flows slower here, so this is the best place to train!"

"But it's still dangerous here. Can't we wait until we get out?"

"Newbie..." Kevin sighed. "...What happened to your earlier resolve? Didn't you say that you were ready to take anything on?"

'Well, I didn't exactly say that but... he's right. I can't believe I almost forgot about my own resolve.'

With his fists clenched and determination flared up in his eyes, Glenn quickly stood up and delivered a quick jab into the air.

"That's right! More!"

He punched again.

"Oooh! That's a good punch! Now move closer to the campfire!"

"Can you guys keep it down?" Katherine suddenly poked her head out of Glenn with tired eyes. "I'm trying to sleep here. You're so loud that I can here it even inside his s—"

"Ignore Kate's words! Be louder! Show me your passion! Tell me, what do you fight for?"

"For Lilith!"

"What? I can't hear you!"

"For Lilith!"

"Bahahah! Is that a girl's name? And it sounds like a demon's name at that! Good! Maidens are a great source of motivation."

After a few more seconds of shouting loudly and throwing punches at absolutely nothing, Glenn finally arrived near the campfire.

"You see the Chaos? Punch through it!"

Glenn obliged. There was a slight bit of resistance, but that was it. It was almost like the time when he pierced a Slime's body with his punch alone.

However, Kevin wasn't satisfied. "Tch, again! You're doing it all wrong!"

Glenn did it again without questioning anything. This time, however, he used much more force in his punch.

"Punching harder won't solve anything."

"Then what do you want me to do?"

As Kevin was about to answer, Ander suddenly entered the camp and asked, "Son-in-law, why are you shouting like that?"

Glenn frowned. "Haven't I already refused your offer—"

But he was interrupted by Kevin.

"Ah, perfect timing! Newbie, tell my descendant to gather more firewood."

Although weirded out by the strange request, Glenn still spoke to Ander, "Ander, gather more firewood."

"H-Huh? Why? Isn't this already enough? And there isn't any firewood here. The thing fueling is fire is just dry tumbleweeds and broken wooden shields I picked up along the way."

Kevin ordered, "Tell him to gather those then."

"Gather those things then."

"But you haven't answered my question. Why do you need wood?"

"I don't know myself. Kevin just told me to do so. Assuming that ghosts can't go senile, I think this has something to do with him training me."

Ander's eyes sparkled at the word 'training.' With rushed steps, he immediately turned around and ran out of the camp.

"I'll be back soon!"

...

Like Ander promised, he was back really soon. In his hands were some half-rotten wooden shields, tumbleweeds, and some clothes. However, the clothes weren't those of the Cultists. Instead, they were either police or civilian clothing.

Noticing Glenn's gaze, Ander spoke, "Don't worry, I didn't kill people just to get their clothes. I found these clothes lying on the ground. It seems like either the Cultists or monsters killed them."

"I see..."

"So, what do I do with these things?"

"Throw them in the fire," Glenn repeated what Kevin had just told him.

Nodding, Ander threw everything into the fire.

Glenn then stood before the fire again, gazing at the dense Chaos.

"Good." Kevin nodded in satisfaction. "Newbie, use your Fire magic to make it even bigger!"

[Ablaze]

The fire was now a dark-red color. It felt a lot hotter and stuffy than before. The former was because of the intense heat the fire was giving off, the latter was due to the Chaos now becoming denser than ever, so much so that Glenn could barely see the bright fire through all the Chaos particles.

Kevin, meanwhile, was more than satisfied with this. "Good. Newbie, try punching through it now."

Glenn obliged. Clenching his fists hard, he punched with Mana infused in his fist just to be safe. However...

'ARHHHHHHHHHHH! IT HURTS'

Despite still looking like viscous liquid floating in the air, the Chaos was now as hard as a sturdy wall. Glenn held his hand as he tried to hold back his screams of pain in order to not appear as pathetic to Ander, cursing his past self for having came up with the stupid idea of punching it as hard as he did.

"Bahahahahah!" Kevin laughed. "Does it hurt? Oh, you don't need to answer. I know it hurts like hell!"

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'This ghost bastard!'

He knew that this was going to happen, didn't he? Of course he did! If it was just an ordinary wall, Glenn wouldn't have been in so much pain. There was something strange about the Chaos that made it so painful.

Glenn waved his hand around to check if anything was broken. And of course, something was.

"Ander, can you give me a Recovery potion? I think I broke my fingers."

Ander raised an eyebrow. "Just from punching thin air?" 

"Of course not! It's just that the ghost tricked me into punching something strange."

"Hey! It's your fault for using too much force!" 

But Glenn ignored Kevin and looked at Ander with pleading eyes.

Sighing, Ander took out a Recovery potion from his pocket and threw it toward Glenn.

Glenn caught the potion while it was still in mid-air. Staring at the thin vial containing the red liquid that was the Recovery potion, he popped the cork off and gulped it down. 

'Dammit, even nobles have to suffer with bitter potions, huh?' Glenn thought as his face scrunched up in disgust.

However, something was strange.

'Weird, why don't I feel the pain of my bones snapping back in place?'

Several minutes had passed, and Glenn could still tell that his fingers were broken. Crushing the vial into bits with his other hand, he scowled. "Ander, did you just give me a defective potion on purpose?"

"...?"

"My fingers, they're still broken."

"What? I gave you a medium-grade potion!"

Glenn's body stiffened upon hearing this. If Ander was telling the truth, then he had just wasted 5000 Arthens for nothing.

'5000 Arthens is basically scrap paper to Ander, so unless he enjoys watching me suffer, he would have no motive to give me a fake potion. That means...'

Glenn immediately snapped his head toward Kevin, who was trying his hardest to hold back his roaring laughter. Narrowing his eyes, Glenn grabbed a handful of Chaos and slapped the back of Kevin's head.

"Damn ghost! What did you do?!"

"Pfffft! HAHAHAHAHA! They always fall for it!" Wiping the ghost tears in the corners of his eyes, Kevin continued. "It's my Chaos art of Irreversibility. You can't heal your injuries no matter what unless I allow you to— PFFFFFT! HAHAHAH! Sorry, it's just too funny seeing your reactions!"

After calming his hysterical laughter down, Kevin snapped his fingers. "There, Irreversibility is now lifted. Ask my descendant for another potion."

Though skeptical, Glenn had no other choice. "Ander, give me another potion... Preferably a low-grade one this time."

In response, Ander threw Glenn a potion vial that looked identical to the one earlier. "I can't, I only have medium and high-grade ones."

Glenn received the vial and chugged it down. Watching his fingers snapping back in place, he clicked his tongue. 'Tch, rich people.'

Seeing that Glenn's injuries were healed, Kevin spoke. "There are 2 reasons why I made you punch the dense Chaos. First is to show you my Chaos art, Irreversibility. Kate's Chaos art is destabilization, but I doubt she'll teach you it anytime soon."

Glenn stood up and gazed at the dense Chaos. "And what's the second one?"

"To illustrate a point. You can never pierce through this wall of Chaos with your current strength, however much Mana you agglomerate. You have to fight more skillfully, not forcefully. One trick I like to use is to will and move the Chaos instead of physically grabbing it."

Glenn nodded in understanding. Then, he took a fighting stance.

Seeing this, Kevin continued with a sigh. "You don't have to worry about that right now. A newbie like you can't learn it—"

[Chaos punch]

Glenn instinctively muttered. Chaos bent to his will and wrapped themselves around his hand, thinning the dense Chaos around the campfire and empowering his punch at the same time. His punch punctured the previously seemingly impregnable wall of Chaos like thin paper; the force behind it was so great that air stirred up wildly, snuffling out the bright campfire.

Kevin stared at Glenn with his eyes widened and eyes agape. Similarly, Ander let out a short gasp of surprise at the punch that didn't match Glenn's 2nd-tier strength at all!

After a while, Kevin recovered from his surprise and hurriedly asked, "Newbie! What did you do?!"

"...? I did exactly what you told me to. I willed the Chaos and punched through it."

"A-And with such ease?"

"It wasn't that easy. I could only control the Chaos when my fist was a few inches away from the Chaos wall... Now that I think about it, I was dangerously close to breaking my finger again."

Kevin heaved a long sigh. "Okay fine, I admit that you're very talented. I need to discuss this with Kate, so you probably won't see me for a while."

"I hope so. I'm already getting tired of your babblings." 

Ignoring Glenn's disrespectful words, Kevin continued, "By the way, you should grab the Chaos during a fight. It seems to work best for you seeing as you can't control Chaos from a long distance like Kate and I can. Anyway, bye!"

With Kevin now gone, Glenn sighed and plopped down right near the campfire. 

[Ablaze]

Watching Ander moving to sit right next to the now-relit fire and him, Glenn asked, "You aren't going to ask what the ghost taught me?"

"Nah, it's no use knowing about it without the Skill book. Besides, as a knight, I have to respect your secrets."

To which, Glenn could only nod in gratitude. "Thanks..."

"Hah, if you're really grateful, then marry Erika."

"I already told you I won't!"

"Hey, don't reject her so fast! Here, take a look at her face. I'm sure you'll change your mind," said Ander as he reached into his pocket and took out what seemed to be a mini-portrait.

Seeing this, Glenn couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "You have a mini-portrait of your adopted daughter?"

"Don't look at me like I'm some kind of creep. I keep mini-portraits of all my children!"

'That's even more fucked up.'

Sure, if he just wanted to have something to remind him of them when he was at work then it was fine. However, the way he acted so defensively even when Glenn hadn't said anything bad about him was very suspicious.

Before his image in Glenn's mind could get any worse, Ander suddenly spoke with a sigh, "Ah, what a shame. Must've ripped it during the fight with the Cultist-knight. Well, take a look anyways."

Of course, Glenn didn't want to look at the picture and fuel Ander's zealot shipping even more. However, he didn't really have a choice when the portrait was shoved right up his face.

"Fine! I'll look at it!"

White expensive armor with some golden decorations on it, fair white skin that complimented her small figure, raven hair that flowed to her waist, and slender arms that somehow were still sturdy-looking. That was Glenn's first impression of Erika. However, he couldn't see her face since that part of the portrait was ripped out.

"I still don't know what she looks like but..."

'Nice thighs though.'

But of course, Glenn wasn't suicidal enough to say that out loud. 

'No, it's suicidal in a different way. Ander would definitely annoy me even more to marry his daughter if I said that out loud.'

As such, he promptly threw the portrait into the fire.

Seeing this, Ander shouted, "Why would you do that?! Do you have any idea how much I paid for the artist to paint her in secre— I mean draw her with her consent?"

Ignoring Ander's very concerning words that he tried to fix, Glenn spoke calmly, "I just saved your ass there."

"How?!"

"The ripped portrait only continued her body, specifically her breastplates and thighs that only had a pelvic curtain covering not even half of them. People would definitely think that you're lusting after your adopted daughter if they see this... assuming that you aren't already doing exactly that."

"I'm not! But..." Ander sighed. "...You're right. My wife would definitely kill me if she sees it. Thanks, son-in-law."

By this time, Glenn had already gotten used to Ander calling him by that annoying title. Thus, he waved his hand dismissively and plopped down to the ground, trying to get as much rest as he could before that damn ghost appeared again.

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