3. The Azure Sonata

Going down the stairs, Rakna mulled over how he could bypass the kobolds’ sense of smell. The sounds of his footsteps echoed for a minute before he finally decided on his next course of action.

He exited the staircase on the second floor of the building and quietly made his way toward his classroom. He asked Alexa and she told him that the state of the school was the exact same as it was before the transfer, personal objects included.

When he opened the door, Rakna spotted his bag and pulled two things out of it. One was a peculiar silver cigarette case. He put one roll-up between his lips and lit it with the case itself which surprisingly had an integrated lighter in a corner. He inhaled once and huffed a cloud of smoke before reaching for the second thing; a military swiss knife.

The actual knife was of pretty good quality but that’s not what Rakna wanted it for. He ejected one of the many integrated tools and went toward the lockers of his classmates.

He lock-picked them open and searched the items inside. He did that for a dozen lockers or so before stopping. Ultimately, he ended up with around five deodorizers on one of the desks of the room.

“This should be more than enough,” he muttered and huffed a bit of smoke. Pronos tilted his head in confusion as he watched his newfound master’s actions.

Rakna picked one of the deodorizers and started spraying it throughout the room. He spent the following ten minutes emptying four of them, not only in his classroom but also a huge chunk of the floor and himself. After all of that, the air was barely breathable but Rakna ignored it.

“Okay,” he sighed and extinguished his cigarette. He then grabbed a random chair and threw it at a window of the corridor. However, it just bounced on the glass and fell on the floor.

“…”

“…”

Even Pronos didn’t know what to think.

“Right, this is reinforced glass,” Rakna commented and opened the window with a poker face as if nothing had happened and threw the chair again. This time it crashed and broke apart loudly on the ground outside.  Every kobold instantly heard it and looked toward the source.

Rakna stuck his head out of the window and waved at them. “Um, come at me?” He said more or less loudly and the monster started marching in his direction. “I guess that worked…”

He then quickly grabbed his bag and rushed toward the main staircase which he had already filled with the scent of one of the deodorizers. He crouched on a shadowy corner slightly above the floor he was in and simply waited.

He could already hear the sounds of footsteps and some growls coming from below. It took around a minute before he saw the first kobold arrive. The dog creature wheezed when it sniffed the air and scrunched up its nose.

Rakna silently watched as more arrived. As he expected, and fortunately, not all of them had come to search this floor. There were around ten of them and amongst the group, there was what appeared to be a sort of platoon leader barking orders at the others. Rakna couldn’t understand any of it since it was plenty evident that he hadn’t magically gained the talent to understand dog speech.

Rakna decided to move when the kobolds had dispersed and only one remained in front of the stairs. He breathed in and carefully approached the back of the oblivious animal. He readied Blood Fang and, when he was in range, shut the kobold’s muzzle with one hand and slit its throat with the other.

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Lv.3 Kobold killed.

Requirements for level up updated.

Kill the equivalent of 10 Levels to level up.

Current progress: 3/10

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The kobold died with widened eyes and a very suppressed whimper. Rakna grunted and grabbed the body before it could fall on the ground. He temporarily dismissed the system window and gazed at his bloodstained hand. ‘I admit… this isn’t pleasant. I forgot how it felt after these last few years,’ he groused inwardly.

He didn’t feel regret for having taken the life of his enemy nor disgust for the blood he had on his hands. Emotionally speaking, he was completely fine. But his rational mind was screaming at him, telling him that he had just killed, that he should be feeling sorry. No matter if it was a kobold or whatever else. It was like his mind was having an internal war and he hated it.

He then remembered something his uncle once told him during his training. “You want to know how it is to kill? Depends. I think it’s fun. Because it usually means a job done,” he had said while laughing and Rakna had glared at him.

“Oh, you were serious… Well, there isn’t really an answer to that. If you kill for a cause or even by mistake, you can either rejoice or regret. But, never forget this. Those who suffer nothing at the moment of the kill are scum. If you can’t respect life in any way, shape, or form, you are trash. You can wash the blood but you can never forget its color. If you’re worried about this; do not. I know well that you don’t disregard the potential of life. Never change that, kiddo.”

Rakna sighed and shook his head. His carefree uncle’s words had always been so casual but equally significant. Pronos looked at him with a concerned look and Rakna patted his head once to tell him he was okay. He then looked at the window from earlier.

‘So, it’s not Exp but… level measures? To be sure, Alexa, if I hypothetically kill a Lv.7 creature right now, would I level up?’

[Affirmative. However, keep in mind that killing foes below your own level will give less points and those more than ten levels below yours will give nothing. But there are exceptions of course. For instance, if you kill a Lv.7 creature right now, the level difference will grant you a bonus.]

‘Interesting,’ Rakna mused and then carefully peeked in the corridor. Three kobolds were walking around and the rest was apparently ransacking the rooms considering the noises he was hearing.

“Pronos,” he whispered and the little snake stuck his head out of his scarf. “Take care of the one on the far right then come back right away.”

Pronos nodded promptly. He ejected himself out of the scarf and quietly slithered toward his target. Meanwhile, Rakna grabbed his two knives and waited for the right moment.

Pronos slowly approached the kobold while keeping an eye on the two others. Once he was close enough, he jumped on the creature and coiled around its neck before strangling and biting it. His fangs released a blue-colored poison.

The kobold whimpered as its veins started glowing blue. Its neck heated up before it died with its flesh downright burned.

At the same time, Rakna threw the swiss knife at one of the other two and rushed toward the last one, plunging Blood Fang in its neck. When he pulled out his serrated dagger, both kobolds fell on the ground at the same time.

Rakna couldn’t think much of his victory. He quickly retrieved his knives and grabbed Pronos before bolting out of there. Within a few seconds, six very angry dogs were snarling and chasing him.

“Well, this is fun,” Rakna deadpanned. “I never was good for discretion anyway.”

He inhaled and rushed toward an opened window. He placed his foot on the ledge and unhesitatingly jumped. He extended his arm and gripped the ledge of the window above him before pulling himself up in a swift motion.

He whirled Blood Fang in his hand and broke the window’s lock with the blade. He then pushed it open before slipping inside the building’s floor.

When he was back inside, he sighed. “If there’s one thing the old man told me to imperatively learn, it’s parkour,” he muttered and looked around. “They should be coming soon… The lab should be on this floor.”

Rakna kicked the ground and looked out for the correct door. When he found it, he immediately tried to open it. He clicked his tongue when he realized that it was closed. He rolled his eyes and took a few steps back.

“Okay…” He exhaled and hopped before unleashing a kick against the door. The lock and hinges didn’t even resist for a second as the door fell on the floor. Rakna grunted as he felt the numbing sensation coming up his leg. He grabbed Pronos and placed him on the ground. “Little guy, can you keep watch for me?”

The snake nodded and Rakna entered the lab. He walked toward the drawers and closets and searched their content. He grabbed a few chemical components and mused. “Well, this is definitely better than some sprayers,” he uttered and took out a Bunsen. “It shouldn’t be impossible with these ingredients,” he muttered after mixing the basic chemical compounds, including sulfur, then started searching for something else.

“Where did they put the liquid hydrogen? I thought they had gotten some for some club project or whatever,” he grumbled as he looked through a closet when he heard Pronos hiss. He frowned and went to the door. Without peeking, he focused and tried to hear the sounds. He caught some footsteps as well as some barking coming from the stairs.

“No choice. Pronos, get inside. Don’t let them see you,” he whispered and continued to look through the room. “Finally,” he found what he wanted just in time. He grabbed the hermetic container and quickly finished his concoction.

“Well, at least, I didn’t kill myself doing this…” Rakna mumbled and Pronos looked at him with round eyes. “It’s nothing, little guy.”

He shook the closed container a few times until the content started showing signs of evaporating and of building pressure inside.

Rakna grunted. ‘It won’t last long,’ he thought then heard the kobolds approaching. He took two other chemical reagents and mixed them together. The result started producing smoke and he proceeded to uncover the first concoction while holding his breath and peeked out of the lab.

“Time to bail out. Fast,” Rakna grabbed Pronos again and just like before, exited the room through the window before closing it behind him. After that, the problem was that there was nothing to latch on above him and there were probably other kobolds coming up on the second floor.

“Pronos, can you slither up to the roof?”

The little snake nodded and crawled on the wall vertically as if it was the easiest thing ever. ‘Yeah, definitely an Eion snake,’ Rakna commented inwardly and looked around. He then reached for his scarf and slowly got it off. He took out his cigarette case from his pocket and pressed it against the scarf before triggering the lighter inside.

A blue light suddenly pulsed on the scarf and spread throughout the fabric. Rakna felt the soft material become firm as it wriggled. The blue glow receded after a few seconds when the scarf had completely transformed.

Rakna now held in his hand a long polearm. The shaft was dark blue, almost resembling lapis lazuli. Just prior to the blade, there was a light blue ribbon wrapped around it. The blade itself was also azure. It was thick-looking and one edged as well as serrated on the backside. In other words, it looked like a very fancy guandao, also known as a glaive in Europe.

Rakna wielded it like a whirlwind and cracked his neck. Firstly, he took the highest elevation he could while stepping on the window he was on, then took out Blood Fang before planting it in the wall.

“This is gonna be tough…” He muttered. “Alexa, assign one free point to Dexterity.”

[Acknowledged.]

Rakna promptly felt his limbs get lighter and easier to control. He inhaled and pushed himself up with his hand holding onto Blood Fang. He repeated the motion a few times before doing it one final time at full force. He let go of the knife and his waist managed to go above it. Within that same time frame, he had gotten close enough to the barrier enclosing the roof. He reared his polearm and thrust it between the ground and the barrier so that it would get stuck.

Rakna immediately held onto it when he was about to fall. “That was risky…” He grunted and lifted himself up. Though, he didn’t go to the roof yet, but revolved around the spear’s shaft and hanged from it with his feet to reach for Blood Fang below. Then, he acrobatically climbed back to stand on the spear. He gripped the barrier, pulled his spear out, and climbed over it to finally land on the roof.

“What a pain,” Rakna muttered and lit a cigarette. He huffed a puff of smoke and planted his spear in the concrete before taking a look at its attributes.

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Designation: Blade/Guandao

Name: Azure Sonata

Rarity: Blue

Attack power: +50

Durability: 100/100 (Can auto-repair)

Perks:

- Intertwined Miniature Eion Systems: The weapon possesses memory of form and is able to switch from one form to another with an Eion energy influx as the trigger.

Currently available: Scarf, Guandao.

- Eion Energy Production: The weapon constantly generates energy and is incidentally able to regenerate the systems composing it with time.

- Oscillation Blade (Bladed form only): Through oscillation, the blade becomes ten times sharper and can generate heat.

Description:

A masterpiece forged by a master blacksmith, the Earth conqueror himself, with the technology of an advanced civilization.

It was given to Rakna Xiorra as a gift by the one who bears the name of Blade.

Note: Evolvable.

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