SSS-Rank Chaos Mage Chapter 15: A scam?

Noah was so startled that he almost stumbled forward and fell down. “This voice…” He turned around to see a dozen of his classmates standing right behind him. What the hell? Why were these guys here? He had come here to do some testing by himself, only to find out that half of his class was right here with him?

Noah gaped blankly, unsure of what to do now, but luckily for him, it was not just the losers this time around. Darius, one of the big shots in his class, was also standing in the group. Seeing the few students laughing without discipline, he immediately gave a stern warning. “Everyone, behave yourself. This trip is to train our skills, so let’s not lose focus. Let’s keep going.”

The group immediately quieted down, and even Noah was impressed with his attitude. What a nice fella!

Noah watched as the bunch of students obediently walked past him, not daring to disobey the star student of the class and probably the leader of this small group. They seemed to be quite serious about their training.

“Well, that’s none of my concern.” He started walking in a different direction so as not to cross paths with them again. But he suddenly noticed a stranger in that group whom he had never seen before, a tall, beautiful and slender girl. He was pretty sure that this girl was not there in their class.

Though Noah did not focus on these things at the moment, as a young person, he was naturally aware of all the girls in their class at least, and this one was not among them. Moreover, she was definitely a class above in the looks department compared to most of the female students.

“Hmmm… who is this?” He wondered for a moment when he noticed Darius as well, paying special attention to this particular person. Ah! Now Noah understood. These guys probably did not mess with him because of this girl. “Well, whatever. Works out for me.” He continued walking ahead away from this group.

However, after walking for about half a mile, he stopped in his tracks. “This is enough.” Noah did not intend to walk deeper into the stronghold and get into some sort of trouble. Sure this place was a safe area and mainly for the weak-ass adventurers to train, but he was particularly weak even among these weaker adventurers.

So while others might just be gravely injured, he might just end up dying. He did not want to take any chances and stopped in the small clearing. The entire stronghold was like a forest, so his position and his figure were well hidden. Most people were also deeper into the forest, and it looked like he would be able to train here freely.

“Ok. Now it’s time to start.” Noah let out a sigh. He opened his system interface and eyed his new mysterious skill.

[Chaos Orb Creation]: Create a chaos orb; Cool Down: 30 seconds; Limit: 3

“Ahhh. There it is.” He gulped. “Jesus, Allah, Buddha, heavenly father, everyone please… just please… let this one skill alone be a good one!” Noah said his prayers. “Now, how should I activate this thing? Do I shout the skill name out loud?” He made a pose that he copied from the many animes he had watched and pushed his hand out with confidence.

“Chaos Orb Creation!” He spoke out, clearly and loudly.

1 second passed. 2 seconds passed. Soon an entire minute passed by, and yet nothing happened? Noah continued to stare at his palm and the space in front of him, but nothing at all was happening.

“What the… is this whole damn thing a scam?” A frightening thought popped up in his hand. What was he supposed to do now? He tried repeating it a few more times in different poses, but nothing at all happened. “This is bullshit. Come on! I wasted 2 skill points on you, you damned skill!”

Suddenly a twig snapped near him, and Noah’s heart dropped. Was something here? Not only did his skill not activate and was completely useless, but he also ran into a creature from this stronghold? What shitty luck! It looked like this was just not his day!

“Fuck this shit.” Noah decided to go back to the safety of the academy and do a more thorough investigation of this mysterious system before taking another risk again. As for his current situation, he was not worried. After all, he daringly came here only because of his time-tested ability to run fast.

The new skill might have screwed him over, but agility was still high, and he was able to run very fast. Not bothering to look behind him, Noah immediately started running back to the gate entrance. No matter what was chasing him, he was confident he could outrun it.

Pa Pa Pa Pa

Noah’s footsteps sounded loudly in the forest as he ran for his life. But suddenly, after running for a bit, he came to a screeching halt. This was because… there was something weird going on. Something was running with him. Something like a black blur.

He first turned around left and right, but there seemed to be nothing there. He also finally looked behind him, and nothing was chasing him. Perhaps the thing decided not to chase him, then what the heck was the black thing? It appeared when he was running, and now it stopped. Was he going crazy?

Noah decided to run again and check if the weird thing showed up again. Voila! He only sprinted for a second, and it again appeared. However, it once again disappeared when he tried to look at it. “Seriously, what the heck is going on?” Noah was this close to losing it.

He then again ran, but this time, he tried to look from the corner of his eyes rather than turning completely towards the side to look, and finally… he saw the thing!

A black ball was floating on his right side!

Huh?

The did the same on his left side, and once again… he saw that another black ball was floating on his left side?

“Don’t tell me…” Noah then slowly shifted his gaze up when he saw the third black ball floating right above his head. The moment he saw this, he immediately knew what was happening! These three black balls had to be the chaos balls!

The skill had actually worked!

Unfortunately, it looked like his luck was still shitty. Just as Noah discovered this new skill, the creature that was chasing him also caught up to him!