Ascension: Online

Right after that crazy girl finished her fight, I saw her head off in the direction of the city's east gates - also where our inn was located. I didn't want to believe it, but perhaps… she was staying in the same inn as us? If that was the case… there could be trouble. Hopefully not, though - hopefully, she was just heading out the east gates to get some XP farming done.

Speaking of her, this time, I made sure to get close enough to use Inspect on her as she fought. I now had a good grasp of her stats, and they weren't anything short of extraordinary:

[Name: Nadeshiko Nakano]

[Gender: Female]

[Race: Human]

[Realm: Late Nascent Cultivator]

[Level: 48]

STR: 160

AGI: 210

INT: 30

DEX: 110

MAG: 10

LUC: 10

The overall SP allocation was similar to that of Hina-nee's, but with greater values - high STR, high AGI, and moderate DEX, possibly to wield that massive scythe of hers. I didn't know whether or not she chose her main class yet, but it was clear she was aiming to become an Assassin just like Hina-nee. This was evident considering she used the Blink skill earlier in the fight against that now-dead young man.

That, combined with her AGI stat of 200, could prove to be a problem, even for me. Last time I checked, I had an AGI stat of 200 as well… though they probably leveled up a bit passively from the two battles I've fought so far in the preliminaries. That said, the increase wouldn't be anything significant enough to actually make too much of a difference, given how weak the two opponents I had fought against had been.

Still, I was confident I could handle that girl if it came down to it. But if she gets matched with Hina-nee… her stats were nearly twice as high. Hina-nee would be killed - and since we were both above Level 15 now, dying would cost us greatly, causing us to lose items and such. It's not like we had anything that could be counted as a treasure, but she could lose money and crafting materials.

For the record, crafting materials were valuable. Without them, we wouldn't have any clean undergarments to switch into. That was a huge problem. Luckily, we still had enough materials from the sickleboars, sabertooths, and snowolves that we killed throughout our journey in this world so far.

Besides, even if there wasn't the risk of losing items, I knew full well just how painful dying in this game was, both physically and mentally. I wanted to prevent Hina-nee from experiencing that at all costs.

Soon after Nakano Nadeshiko left, another target worthy of observation was called up to fight.

"91 and 2!" the mayor announced after the stage had been cleaned of all the blood and gore.

"Kaze-kun! It's that guy you said to watch out for!" Hina-nee whispered sharply from beside me.

I nodded firmly and focused on the stage. One one side, a burly man with an arrogant air to him stood, cracking his knuckles. He didn't even wear a top, only pants. On the other end was a man whose eyes were literally covered by his own hair - my subject of observation. At a glance, it was completely obvious who would win. But like they always say… never judge a book by its cover.

"Heh… it's you, huh?" the arrogant man chuckled with a confident grin on his face. "I saw your fight with that baldie yesterday. Not bad, not bad at all."

"…" the hairy man didn't respond or show any reaction.

"It seems you have a bunch of strength. But let me tell you this… I could've done the same thing to that baldie yesterday easily."

Faced with the arrogant man's taunt, the hairy man… still didn't say anything.

The arrogant man's eyebrow twitched. "Tch… let's see how long you can remain quiet when I beat the shit out of you…"

"Both sides ready - three… two… one…" the mayor raised his hand into the air and cut downwards.

"Go!"

The drums were struck, signaling the beginning of the fight.

"RAAH!" The arrogant man reared his fist back and began running towards his opponent, who was as nonchalant as ever.

He was planning on using the momentum of the run to help increase the strength of his punch. Not a bad strategy. However…

"You're done for!" the arrogant man prepared to unleash his strike as he got within distance.

But in that instant, the hairy man breathed, coiled his hand into a fist, and reared it back, all in a single instant. As the two threw their punches at each other, time seemed to slow down.

BOOM!

The two powerful fists collided, sending out an incredibly powerful shockwave all around them that seemed to break the slow motion. Winds changed their trajectory from the sudden force, as all other sounds were deafened by the ear-splitting roar generated from the impact.

It was as if two dragons had crashed into each other with all their might, neither of them backing down.

Until one finally did.

The arrogant man was sent flying backwards after a short delay that felt like eons. He crashed into the same building baldie had crashed into just a day ago, and then another.

And another.

And another.

BOOM! CRASH!

The poor man's body continued to tumble through building after building, showing no sign of stopping. The audience, whistling, raised their hands above their eyes to see better, attempting to track the man as he carried on destroying structure after structure.

At last, after successfully making a hole in seven buildings in a row, the man's limp body crashed against the city's actual walls, made of solid concrete. Now that, he was unable to break through, and fell to the ground.

Many screams and yells of protest came from the residents of those seven buildings, which the mayor hurried over to accommodate.

As for the perpetrator of all this himself, he calmly walked off the stage, hands stuffed in his pockets. It was then that I realized I had forgotten to use Inspect on him, and in a panic, I hurriedly pushed through the audience to get within range.

"Okay, this should be close enough… huh?"

I tried using Inspect on him, but it wasn't working. Was I out of range still? No… when I used it on Nakano, the distance had been further…

Wait… was this guy not a player?

He began walking way from the center of the city silently. I shot Hina-nee and Aisa a quick glance, which they returned. Then, pointing in the direction of the man, the two immediately understood what I was trying to do. They nodded firmly, as if telling me to do what I needed to do. I sent them an 'ok' hand gesture in return and quickly followed behind the hairy man.

It was a risk, but I needed to get to the bottom of this.

If he wasn't a player, then… just who was he?

Carefully, I followed his trail.

*****

The man walked at quite a slow speed at first, but after looking behind him, he then sped up. Luckily, I managed to slip behind a building in time to avoid detection. After confirming he wasn't looking anymore, I went out of my hiding spot and began following him once again, also picking up my own pace to match his.

Luckily, since most people in the city were drawn to the center to watch the preliminaries, the streets were relatively empty, so no one sent me any suspicious looks.

I continued following the hairy man for a while. He sped up yet again and began clutching his chest. I couldn't see very well since I was behind him, but he appeared to be in pain. Then, he suddenly turned a corner, entering the dark alleyway in between two buildings. I narrowed my eyes and quickly ran over to the alleyway, hugging the wall.

"Ugh… bleh… cough, cough…"

Slowly, I peeked around the corner to see what the noise was. There, the hairy man stood weakly, body trembling as he supported himself by leaning on the wall with one hand. Below him, on the ground, was a pool of blood lay. But it was not normal blood.

No… this blood was pink. A bright pink unlike anything I've ever seen before, nearly resembling white.

"Agh… the curse is kicking in again…" he coughed as more blood came out.

Was this why he was in such a hurry to get somewhere isolated? But… why was his blood pink…?

I decided to confront him about it. He was in a weak state right now - if I waited until he recovered, he wouldn't tell me anything.

Slowly, I stepped out from the cover of the building.