CH 15- Kick them where they're weak

"Don't tell me your name, names become stronger here the less people know your name."

Is that why sometimes they put their names in chants?

"You need to grow stronger if you want to survive, Malebria already had enemies at this point. Check in with the wolf siblings, they fight well in the dark."

Great, just great.

"And read to live again, people tend to find unexpected things when reading a book a second time."

I am now sitting on a bank, I don't know how I got on the bank. I got to make realisation that I'm in the park behind the academy with all three books neatly stacked on my lap. 

"What the hell just happened?"

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I'm not sure who or what got into Malebria, I just hope it knows how valuable that life is. 

Anyhow, today is the day I'm meant to die, shocking am I right? I have to save Tiechie as well and get Macus killed. Macus originally survives by abandoning Tiechie and using the time her being killed bought him to run away. 

"What are you doing here?" 

I turned my head to see Mustafa, his head is tilted in curiosity. 

"Sea boil."

"In the middle of the night?" 

"It takes like five hours to cook."

"... no hard feelings about, you know."

He made a gesture that somewhat resembles an uppercut. 

"It's nothing, how is Kaan doing?"

"He's good, a bit grumpy that his plan didn't work."

"Plan?"

It is easy to play dumb since Mustafa doesn't even assume there is a chance of anyone knowing.

"He laced the pit with smelling salts so that he would get back up after being knocked out."

"Huh, would that even work if he fell on his back?" 

"That's what I said."

"... so what are you doing her in the middle of the night?"

"I was woken up by the smell of someone cooking something."

"Huh."

"Yeah."

"Good morning I guess."

"Yeah, good morning."

After a quite awkward talk Mustafa went on his merry way as I was left with my sea boil. 

The sea boil will be my sustenance between fights, the shellfish are rich in proteins my body will be using to close wounds and the potatoes are calorie heavy which will give me the strength to fight. 

There are probably better options but I'm no expert on nutrients and I felt like sea food.

The biggest downside is that I will have to peel all the crawfish and ghost shrimp before storing them away. 

Whose idea was it to cook water bugs anyway? Probably some cavemen. 

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Does this guy ever stop talking? Blah blah blah dungeon. 

The first blood event is the rigged Dungeon. Basically the moonshades, a group of assassins/terrorists who want to use the Sun Kings absence to kill the Sun Queen, have planted a elven artefact which allowed the dungeon boss to become an awakened being. The boss then proceeded to use her newfound intelligence to pick of the students, leaving mostly just named characters behind because of plot armour. 

"Are you eating a potato?"

"That I am, what is it to you, Raya?"

"Just curios, I once herd from a friend that potatoes are happy vegetables, sadly she didn't know how poisonous they can be."

"Potatoes are power foods, they are heavy, keep you full and give you strength."

"Hmm, but is it enough strength." 

"Raya can you stop threatening me for a single day."

"I'll think about it."

"And have this."

i gave her a pouch which is connected to my storage space.

"What is this now?"

"You can pull out the string and flatten it to jump in. You can escape almost any situation that way:"

"But I will be at your mercy?"

"Raya, your family is one of my regular clients, I don't want to start anything with the Thistlewoods."

"Good."

Raya the thistlewood. I'm gonna have to strengthen her up until she becomes Raya the Manchineel. In order to get the title of Manchineel one has to achieve absolute poison mastery, which she never achieved in the novel. In order for her to awaken and reach her true potential she will have to reject the identity her family pushed on her. Then embrace her true self, a lost, afraid and lonely girl. 

"Now, does everyone remember the plan of action?"

He is still talking? I remember why I skipped to them being in the dungeon, no one wants to hear this. Actually, can we skip forward as well?

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I put on wool socks over my boots to muffle the sound of my steps. The main enemies in this dungeon are giant spiders, about as wide as a dinner plate, very original am I right? My foot steps could easily overtone their approach so lowering the amount of noise I make will directly affect my chance of detecting them. Especially since the dungeon boss told them to attack from behind if possible.

I took out a sledge hammer from my backpack and walked down the cave. The soft sound of my steps was a lot less noticeable than before and the I could hear the soft clacking coming from behind me. 

I swung the hammer over my head and missed its head, but hit the thorax instead. I closed my left eye as some goo got splattered on my face. The inside of a spider is mostly liquid it seems. 

I stood back up and wiped my face with my wrist. 

What a great start to get savage heart.

I kept walking holding my hammer at hip height, 

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I stopped trying to clean myself off after getting spider innards on me. I will just get dirty again.

I have gotten pretty good at squashing the spiders. I began to calculate how far the spiders are and if I would hit their head when I swung. Sometimes I missed the head which usually ends in their guts being sprawled out on the floor. i completely missed only like twice or thrice, I just stomped on those. They are just spiders, after all. 

That in the distance, I see a person, Macus to be exact. 

Perfect.

"Hey."

I called out to him in a softer voice, I don't want to be heard by anyone. 

"Oh thank goodness yo- it's you."

"It's me."

I hit him in the left knee with the hammer. 

"Son of a-"

I grabbed him by his hair and threw him to the ground. I kicked him in the gut until he was laying on his stomach, I might have kicked him a few times after that. 

I was startled by a loud yelp but it is just Tiechie- Oh shit it is Tiechie

Shit, getting arrested for murder will ruin like everything. 

Wait, the sadistic soul...

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All I did was an inviting gesture. 

One might argue that giving someone the offer to kill their friend is not exactly inviting, but look at her go.

"You really are pathetic, huh? Not only do you have a trash skill but let yourself be beaten by others with trash skills. You never avenged me from a week ago, you couldn't even take on a wounded luggage carrier. Why was trash like you born to begin with? Even Liam is better at the game of life than you. So tell me, what would it bring to let you live?"

Each time Macus would try to talk he would just be kicked in the jaw, each time he tried to move he was kicked in the gut. 

The only two people Tiechie genuinely cares about are Lawrence and her mother. That sweet girl who is kind to everyone is a byproduct of her weakness, Tiechie is and always will have a passion for making  others suffer in any way possible.

"Hey, weren't you taller?"

"You didn't have shoes on when I showed up at your place."

"Oh, right. Let's get out of here."

"Your footsteps are too loud, get in the bag."

"Wat"