Chương 86: Chapter 83-Chosen Sickness

My Uneven Blade slides through the Goblin like butter. Speaking of butter, I need to buy some more. I'm almost out. A Goblin comes up behind me and goes to stab. With a simple parry, I deflect the blade. Maybe I should ask Cliff if he knows of any deals going on. With a simple slash, I cut through the Goblin. Man, I'm getting good at this. I gotta thank Gerta for those lessons on sword fighting. It feels like I actually know what I'm doing.

An arrow whizzes past my head and finds itself lodged in the head of a Goblin. Sneaky little fuck. Guess I shouldn't let my guard down. The crackle of lightning appears next to me briefly and then disappears in the blink of an eye. How does she see like that? A dagger slashes for my neck. My foot slips. I barely miss the knife. Using the momentum of the slip, I slide into the ground. I [Throw] a rock at the Goblin, leaving a nasty dent in its head.

The sound of thunder interrupts my thoughts along with a [System] message. 26 LvL. 8 Goblins have been Defeated. Hopper hops down from the nearby tree and gives me a nod. The arrows from nearby disappear and find themselves back in Hopper's quiver. Looking down at my mud-covered uniform, I sigh.

"[Clean]." The mud and dirt disappear as if they were never there to begin with. In fact, it feels warm, almost like it was freshly laundered. Maybe [Clean] is a good [Skill], but still… [Clean], really? Couldn't have been a combat [Skill] or something? Ugh. Penelope walks over.

"You okay, Charlatan?" she asks with a hint of worry.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Not a scratch on me," I say.

"That's not- That's good to hear. Hopper, are we clear?" she asks.

"Yeah, that was the last of them. Still, that was a lot of them. You think there's a colony nearby?" he asks.

"No, we haven't found a single Hobgoblin. Maybe just a pack that merged with another one," she says, brushing off the idea. Taking a second, I let the cold air in and then out. Gods I feel like shit. Taking another breath, I look down at the Goblin corpse. A symbol is carved into its back. That's the same one we found on the Fire Spider. Penelope and Hopper looked into it after we found it, but they didn't find anything about it. No Demon script or even ancient language matched it.

Seems like it's a random symbol, but… something about it pisses me off.

"CJ, are you good?" Hopper asks as I crouch by the corpse.

"Yeah. I'm fine. So, are we pushing forward or are we calling it for the day?" I ask, changing the topic. Penelope shrugs.

"I don't think we have much time left to get anywhere notable. We should wait for Professor Stargazer to call us back." Hopper looks down at his watch.

"Yeah, Princ- Penelope has a point," Hoppers says as he plops down on a rock. Following their lead, I sit down on a rock. Today was a rough day. We ran into multiple groups of Goblins, but this one was the biggest one yet. Penelope's probably right about the colony, but still, something doesn't seem right.

"Are we going to be doing anything today?" Hopper asks.

"What do you mean?" I ask. Hopper gives me a confused look.

"Don't you remember what today is?"

"Of course he doesn't. Charlatan, today's the day the Teleportation Circles under the Arena become available to us," she explains. A pain ripples through my head as I try to focus on the conversation.

"Oh, yeah. Weren't you going to talk to me about that?" Penelope looks around.

"Are we alone, Hopper?" she asks. Hopper's bunny ears perk up.

"Yes. Nobody within earshot at least," he reassures.

"I find it… odd that the school would pick that as our reward," she says with suspicion.

"Too much or too little?" I ask as another pain pierces through my head along with a hot flash.

"Neither. It's not even supposed to be a reward. There's a reason First Years are limited to only an hour of on-the-field practice a day," she says. Hopper nods.

"[Level Mania]," he says in almost a whisper. [Level Mania]. An extremely familiar term. One you would often see during turf wars. Especially when a low [Level] grunt managed to get a lucky hit in. Turns out if you [Level Up] too fast, you get… a bit fucked up in the brain. Instead of feeling terrible from [Leveling Up], you feel… good. A kind of good that you'll chase for the rest of your life. However short it will be. People like that aren't long for this world.

They either get killed by the guard or [Level Up] to the point of death. Yes, it is possible. Too many [Levels] back to back can shatter your soul. A fate worse than death.

"Exactly. Letting loose a bunch of First Years with limited supervision and low [Levels] is just a recipe for disaster. It almost feels like…" Penelope struggles to say.

"Like it's on purpose?" I ask. Penelope nods. Hopper looks over at us with a hint of concern. The snow from a nearby tree falls. A rogue wind sprays the snowflakes around us. Hopper's ears twitch to life and then settle back down. An invisible tension grows between us.

"You're not saying… that the school is trying to hurt us, right?" Hopper asks. My eyes meet Penelope's.

"What's rattling around in that brain of yours, Penelope?" I ask.

"I think the forces of evil have infiltrated the faculty," she says with a serious tone. I nod.

"The Imp and Gryn, right?"

"Imp?" Hopper asks.

"We fought an Imp in the library at the beginning of the year. It had somehow gotten past the barrier," I explain.

"Is that what happened to the library?! Why didn't you guys tell me?" he asks in shock. Penelope shrugs.

"It didn't seem important."

"Seems important, now," he says in a huff. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Sorry, we'll make sure to loop you in the next time we're attacked by the forces of evil," I joke as my breathing gets rough.

"But to loop back around. Gryn, The Blitz Demon, somehow made it past the barrier without shattering it. That should be impossible. Unless…" Hopper shakes his head.

"He was let in."

"Who do you suspect?" I ask.

"I haven't thought that-""Yes, you have. You wouldn't have brought it up unless you had an idea of who might be responsible. That's why you didn't bring it up until now, right?" I ask, cutting her off. Penelope gives me an annoyed look.

"Yes. My best guess is the Head of Security, Joseph Brunt. He's in charge of monitoring the barrier and would have enough sway to convince the Headmaster to give us the reward we got," she explains.

"Seems logical, but I-" I say, and then the world kind of goes lopsided.

"CJ!" Hopper yells as he catches me.

"Who flipped the world?" I ask as another pang of pain rips through me. Penelope places her hand on my head.

"You idiot. You're burning up. You must have noticed," she says as I lean into the coolness of her hand.

"No. I didn…" I begin to say, but then darkness begins to take me.

"Charlatan! Charlatan! CJ, don't you dare-" My whole body hurts. Fuck, I'm sick. When was the last time I was sick? You've got to be kidding me. My eyes feel like an oven, and it's like my joints have rocks in them. Lifting my thousand-pound eyelids, I find myself in bed. Not my bed, but a bed nonetheless. A magic crystal hovers above me, almost like a guillotine. The darkne- Wait! Using all my might, I barely roll out of bed right as the magic crystal stabs through my pillow. That would have killed me!

What in the hells is going on? My head spins as I look around. I'm in the infirmary. It's dark, so it must be late in the night. I cough softly as I struggle to get up. A flash of silver crosses my eyes right as I duck out of the way. A cloaked figure kicks my feet out from under me. Grabbing the bed frame, I'm barely able to roll onto the bed instead. The Assassin stabs towards me. Reaching for my rocks- They're not there.

His knife barely misses as a stray beam of moonlight bounces off a piece of metal and into The Assassin's eyes, blinding him. Using that moment, I grab the magic crystal guillotine and [Throw] it right back at him.

"This is yours, right?" I ask as the crystal embeds itself in his shoulder. Blood pours down his hand, but somehow I'm the one who's probably feeling worse. My vision spins, my knees shake, and a fever unlike any other burns through me. This isn't a coincidence. This asshole got me sick! I rip the bed sheets off the bed and wrap one end around my forearm and the other around my hand.

"Come on, you lazy prick! I don't got all day to deal with your sorry ass!" I taunt as I try to focus my vision. The Assassin pulls the crystal out of his shoulder and readies himself to attack, or the three of them do. Oh Gods! Why am I seeing three of him? Ah, fuck this! I close my eyes, focusing only on my instincts. The moment I settle in, I get a bad feeling from behind me. Taking the bed sheet, I wrap the hand of my would-be attacker around his own shoulder. He tries to pull away in surprise.

"Gotcha," I say as I pull him in and headbutt him. My horns rocket into his skull with a sickening crack. Holding onto his hand, I go in for another headbutt. Another. Another. After the fifth hit to his skull, I feel him go limp in my grasp. Opening my eyes, I see the bloody and exposed skull of my would-be Assassin. He twitches as he tries to reach for his knife. Kicking it away, I look down at him. He's alive at least. Probably doesn't wish he was, but he is. No point in getting close now.

In my state, he could still get me. I'll just sleep. Well, that sucks. He got the bed all bloody. The Assassin twitches again. I really hope I don't know this guy. A pounding pain rips through me as I struggle to stay upright. This is an infirmary. They have to have another bed. Walking over to the next stall, I find an empty room with a bed. That'll do. That'll do, CJ. Crashing into the bed, I use [Clean] on the blood that cakes me. Couldn't I have used [Clean] on the other bed? Eh, who cares?

I instantly conk out, much to my pleasure. A scream ripples through my pounding head. Who's screaming this late into the night? Opening my eyes, I see a faint glow of sunlight. Guess it's not night anymore. Wait? Somebody tried to kill me last night! What happened to them? Wait, I won? How? Was I sick? Was? My body feels light, the blinding headaches are gone, my vision is clear, and I can breathe again. What a turnaround. Guess things are really looking up for me.

"The Chosen One is dead!" a woman screams from the next room. Looking down at my obviously still alive self, I shrug. Did I… die last night? No. No, I've heard of Spirits not being able to tell if they're dead, but I feel pretty alive. Then again, that's probably what a Spirit would say. A rush of boots echoes through the hallway as multiple people rush to the room next door. Shimming into the hall, I catch a glimpse of the commotion.

"He's dead!" a woman who seems like a healer yells.

"Calm down, Ma'am. What happened?" a man in a suit asks. The healer points down at a body strapped to my bed.

"I found him like this when I got here. How could anybody do this to The Chosen One?" she asks with a tad bit of exaggeration. The man in a suit walks over to the bound Assassin.

"What a horrific death. It seems like he was bludgeoned to death, and then he was ritually sacrificed to some unknown creature or Demon."

"What happened to his horns?" I ask from the crowd.

"Good question. They must have harvested them for some nefarious rituals," the man in a suit answers.

"That's crazy. What about his eyes?" I ask as the crowd nods along in agreement. The man in a suit dramatically kneels by the corpse.

"They must have stolen them. The eyes of a Magena are priceless on the black market," he explains. I nod along in agreement.

"Damn that's crazy. So, they even changed his skin color? Those dastardly murderers," I joke.

"Yes, they even- Why isn't he purple?" the man in a suit asks himself. A fellow student turns to me, looks me dead in the eyes, and says, "Do you believe this? Why would anyone ever do something so vicious?"

"Gods, I don't know. People these days. They really need help," I say as I stare at the student. The student nods without a single hint of recognition. Rushing down the hall is a half-dressed Penelope. She breezes past me.

"Morning, Penelope," I say as she passes.

"Morning, Charlatan," she says absentmindedly. The man in a suit gives her a bow as she enters the hospital room.

"Princess, I'm sorry, but The Chosen One is dead." Penelope stumbles for a second before looking at the body.

"You do realize that this isn't a Vashrin, right?" she asks, having regained her composure quickly. Hopper appears next to me.

"Morning, CJ."

"Morning, Hopper. How was your night?" I ask as I watch Penelope chew out this guy.

"Fine. Yours?"

"Could have been better."

"This was supposed to be The Chosen Ones' bed. What was I supposed to think when I found a body in it?" the man in a suit asks.

"Check to see if it is THE CHOSEN ONE!" she yells.

"Yeah, dude. Do your job," I say.

"Exact-" Penelope turns to see me.

"You're alive. What a shame. Care to explain what happened here?" she asks. The entire crowd turns to look at me. A flash of recognition passes through them as they realize that I am, in fact, The Chosen One and I'm not dead.

"Well, you see. I don't quite remember, but I'm pretty sure that guy tried to kill me. I'm also almost 98% sure I left him alive," I explain. The man in a suit looks at me in astonishment.

"You fought off an Assassin while sick? Truly what I would expect from The Chosen One," he says, having regained his vigor. Hopper and I walk into the room and are immediately greeted by the same symbol we've been seeing. The one that was carved into the Fire Spider and the Goblin from earlier. Now, it's painted with blood on the wall.

"Still think it's a random symbol?" I ask Penelope.

"No. No, I don't."

"By the way. Do you have my rocks?"