Chapter 09: I am easy to read

The idiot had to step in and make matters worse. The entire situation would have been resolved with minor annoyance and loss, if only the idiot had not stepped in and opened his trap.

And what the hell did he mean by 'slave'? Who is what now?

I am not the best at hiding my emotions and keeping a poker face so maybe my expression was conveying my thoughts a little too well, because I could see Narb getting smug as if he was saying, "Got you!"

Things were still manageable at this point though, all I had to do was intervene and keep things from getting worse. Yes, I should speak up. I should have spoken up. However much I thought of doing that, the irrational side of mine wanted to keep quiet. So I did.

"Who the fuck are you," asked Narb. His tone remained arrogant.

"And who are you to ask me that," the man egged Narb on. To add fuel to the fire, he mockingly smiled while comically imitating Narb's tone.

"Huh?" I think that it was at this point I noticed the pulsing vein on Narb's forehead. "You fuck-"

"Well then," the man interrupted.

"The fu-"

"What did you say?"

"Fu –"

"Sorry, I didn't get that." He continued to interrupt.

"This is ge-"

"Can you under stand him?" The man turned to me and provoked Narb. He mockingly smirked and holding my hand pulled be back.

Shing! The moment we stepped back, Narb drew his sword and pointed it at the man's throat. He was clearly annoyed.

"Don't get full of yourself, you fucker" Narb snapped!

My eyes widened in surprise, but not because of Narb's temper, that was always there, but because of learning the truth of the situation.

There was a system message before me.

[Mana Link request from <Unknown>. Do you accept? Y/N]

And through the physical contact I could tell that he only had a single point of mana which was erratically moving around in his core. With only a single point it should have been impossible to even think of making a mana link request, let alone picking a fight.

For those who are unfamiliar with Mana Link, it is a simple skill that is very commonly used to share mana. But there are certain conditions which must be met, the first of which is consent, and the other is that the users must be able to handle the burden of the mana they would receive. Usually, it is the second part where most fail. It usually leads to mana overload.

Narb scoffed and grabbed the man by the collar. He was looking at me and was observing my reactions. Through which he found out that there was more going on and that the man was planning something.

As I said earlier, I am an easy person to read, that applies more to someone who has known me for my entire life.

All I could think of in that moment was, "I'm sorry." I was filled with guilt of betraying and selling out the person I was supposed to guide.

[Scribe exclusive passive skill <Observer> activated!] The system prompted.

"Damn it. Get your act together," I heard the man say. Only he didn't say it out loud. Nor did he say to me. That was his thoughts.

One of the skills of a scribe was Observer, it allowed me to read the superficial emotions and thoughts of the man. Only him, because I was his scribe. Well, it is a necessary skill for a scribe, since I have to write down his thoughts and emotions accompanying his activities, but the passive skill activated a little too late.

Thanks to the skill, I finally knew what he wanted. He had been looking around for a way to get us out the dimension from the very moment we got here. I couldn't hear his deep thoughts but I could feel the pressure of his mind. It was like a beast's roar contained behind closed doors. Even though I couldn't hear the roar, I could feel the intensity of it through the vibrations echoing.

I was now seeing him in a different light. His cocky confident eyes now looked like that of someone who was using his brain at full capacity to play a bluff.

Overwhelmed by his intensity, I unintentionally pressed Yes to the system prompt and approved the mana link request.

[Mana Link accepted!]

[Receiving Mana]. Wait. What? Wasn't he going to take mana from me? Why would he give me his only mana.

Right at this moment, Narb had reached the limit of his tolerance, if that could be called tolerance, and was winding up for a large swing. The man clenched his teeth and instructed me, through his thoughts, moments before getting hit, "You can hear me, right? Don't interfere. Focus on your job." It might have been a shot in the dark for him, or so I thought. Yes I was guessing it at that time, but I did ask him about it later and he admitted that he knew my thoughts through my expressions. He could exactly tell what I was thinking.

Everything was proceeding too fast. But let's be fair. I couldn't have reacted even if I wanted to.

His mana flowed into me through the mana link. It was negligent in quantity. If not for the system prompt, I wouldn't have even known that I received any mana.

[Alert!] The system prompts continued.

[<Shadow Warp> Forced Activation Rune detected]

[Skill not learnt!]

[Temporarily granting skill through the rune!]

[Initiating Forced Activation of Shadow Warp…]