Merchant Of Yliaster

Maxwell usually preferred not to enter combat head-on in his old world because back there, he was way too important to die to a random piece of shrapnel flying on the battlefield.

He usually had a couple of secret and a couple of visible bodyguards back then, even when he was going out for simple things. He wondered what they were doing now. He didn't have a need for them in the last phase, so he sent them away with the Project Resurrection.

Being important is so boring in a normal world. Now in this world, he could at least protect himself in the future if he reached high levels.

Right now, he was a nobody in this universe. No one would try to kill him specifically without any reason. It was similar to his youth. He took so many risks back then, and he thrived thanks to them.

As he jumped down from the ventilator shaft, there were no thoughts of responsibilities on his mind. He was once again young, and he was going to take risks like before. Only this time, they felt a lot more interesting.

He felt focused as adrenaline flowed in his bloodstream. He watched Bob touch the ground and immediately charge off to the enforcer's back, knocking the woman backwards a couple of steps. He didn't hesitate to form his mana bolts at the same time and then he hurled them at the woman.

As they were having this heart-warming teamplay, Gendor swung himself from the shaft towards the other two enforcers. His movements were fluid as he pulled an enforcer's sword from its sheath and cut the other one's chest open with it before they could realize what was happening.

It didn't kill the man as people were pretty durable after the initiation, but it was obvious that the enforcer wouldn't be a serious threat with a giant cut on his chest. The man looked at his chest in shock before toppling over to the ground.

The other enforcer was quick to react. He didn't hesitate to shoot his rifle, aiming at Gendor. Unfortunately for him, though, rifles were not really weapons for melee range. He soon realized that fact when Gendor dodged his volley of bullets by moving faster than he could maneuver the rifle.

With a quick sidestep, Gendor put the injured enforcer between them and kicked the guy toward the one firing at him. The guy flew at his friend at a surprising speed, dropping his pistol for Gendor as a welcome surprise.

The unfortunate enforcer who was desperately trying to aim without hitting his friend was launched backwards by his more unfortunate friend.

They landed on the ground as a heap a couple of meters away from Gendor, who kept smiling like he was having a stroll. He walked towards them casually with the enforcer's gun pointing at them, and at this moment, he heard an explosion from his left.

The said explosion was, of course, caused by the mana bolts fired by Maxwell. He finally touched the ground as his enemy was covered in an arcane miasma. He kept his guard up as he heard no notifications for the kill. Those mana bolts took 100 MP from him, leaving him with 185.

Bob was pushed back from the explosion, but this time, he was not surprised since he had known about it from the encounter before. He seemed hopeful that their enemy was already out of commission, but the woman charging at him from the miasma proved him otherwise.

Her armor was in tatters, but she seemed relatively unharmed except for her twisted left arm. Maybe she used it to block the blast. She certainly looked angry as a snarl could be seen on the woman's face. She swung at Bob with her mace, screaming in rage, and Bob barely had any time to raise his pipe to block the hit.

Maxwell was not optimistic about the fate of the boy if that hit connected, so in a split-second decision, he sent a telepathic burst to the woman.

Immediately, he felt something like a weight on his "soul". There was no better way to explain the feeling he got from it. The woman, unlike the others he used the ability on before, didn't lose consciousness, but she looked at him in surprise.

Her hit then connected with Bob's pipe, launching him backward like a ragdoll. Maxwell hoped he was able to create enough distraction for Bob to survive. He quickly used observation on his friend's battered form to check if that was the case.

Bob - Warrior - Lvl-3

Hp:14/150

He had no time to appreciate that Bob's name on the observation was actually "Bob" as he started to form mana bolts with his remaining mana. The woman was stunned by the telepathic exchange enough for him to gain some precious seconds out of it.

He formed 17 mana bolts this time, and the strain he felt was immense. He felt them disintegrating, but he held them intact with his mana manipulation, at least he tried to. One of them exploded in the air, sending dust swirling around it, and that lifted enough burden from his mind, and he was able to send the remaining 16 towards the woman.

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The level gap was not something one could cover easily, though. As the bolts were flying, he could see that woman coming to her senses. She was shifting towards a more defensive position to minimize damage.

Maxwell couldn't really let that happen as they were out of every resource. With all his remaining willpower, he screamed at the woman's head telepathically. It was a crude attack, with the skill being merely a communication skill. But if even sound bombs could do a lot in certain situations, Maxwell refused to believe a skill that transmitted thoughts directly into someone's head would be useless.

The last thing Maxwell heard before all went black for the third time in the last 24 hours was a startled expression from the woman as she tried to understand what she was hearing and a white flash from the explosion.

Both Gendor and the enforcer on the other side of the battlefield were taken aback by the whole situation. The injured enforcer apparently went unconscious when he impacted his friend not so softly. He was now lying on the other enforcer peacefully.

His conscious friend was not peaceful though. "I surrender. What the hell did you do to that boy?" he couldn't help but ask Gendor. Even among the military on the ship, mages were rare.

Since they didn't know how magic worked before the initiation, most people shied away from it, as it was very hard to make use of the class. Few who tried were incompetent to a funny degree as they couldn't even properly feel mana, let alone manipulate it.

"Apart from getting blasted by one of those, nothing," Gendor said amusedly before putting a bullet inside the enforcer's head. There was no need to leave unnecessary threats.

He quickly went to the pod and took out a small gadget from his pocket before inserting it into the controls. He could see the remains of the female enforcer Maxwell had blasted with his magic. Gendor could swear that the skull staring at him seemed to have a surprised expression.

"Kids these days are scary." He mumbled solemnly as the door to the pod opened. He quickly threw Maxwell and barely conscious Bob inside and hopped in himself.

Bob let out a grunt as he touched the floor and woke up with a start, looking around anxiously. "Where is the enemy?" He asked frantically.

"You are probably breathing her right now," Gendor said cheerfully under the confused gaze of the kid, and pressed the launch button on the control panel in front of him.

Maxwell and Bob were launched backward in the pod because of the acceleration. Gendor seemed to care only minimally about their well-being, but Bob, being the thoughtful friend he was, softened Maxwell's impact. Completely intentionally of course.

Maxwell chose to wake up just now. He felt incredibly tired as he looked around and took in the situation. His head was aching like his brain had ambitions that couldn't be contained by his skull.

"So everything was according to the plan, I see." He said weakly. He checked his notifications to see what he had gained for the miserable feeling he was feeling now.

Mana Bolt Leveled Up Lvl-2→10

Mana Manipulation Leveled Up Lvl 8 →12

Soul Sense Leveled Up Lvl 4→7

Telepathy Leveled Up Lvl 2→10

Meditation Leveled up Lvl 4→6

Skill Mental Resistance Unlocked

Mental Resistance Leveled up Lvl 1→4

Mental Resistance: (Lvl-4) As you prefer hitting people with your mind, this skill will help you not break it.

How funny. Maxwell commented as he rolled his eyes. Is it too easy to level skills? He thought. He would ask Gendor about it some other time.

Xaran – Berserker(Lvl 11) is killed. (***************************)

Level up! Stat points distributed. (x5)

I guess killing someone higher-leveled nets you a lot of experience, he thought. His status once again had something weird, though. Some part of the kill notification was censored, and he was getting tired of it already.

He quickly put all his points into the soul attribute. It was too broken not to take advantage of after all. This made his soul suddenly climb up to 41, which was probably way higher than it had any right to be. He would ask Gendor about that too later, obviously not mentioning the Soul part.

As he was occupied with his status, Gendor turned towards him.

"From the look in your eyes, you got a bountiful harvest, I presume," he said, smiling. "As for the plan, you can say that it did, but I never expected you to kill your opponent. How did you manage that anyway?" he seemed genuinely curious.

"I attacked with all my heart," Maxwell said sarcastically while getting up.

"Max, I was gonna ask previously, but weren't you a thief before?" Bob asked.

Well, that explains why I was the one taking out the cover, I suppose. Maxwell thought as he considered how to answer. Well, here it goes,

"Don't you remember how I was embarrassed when selecting a class? I couldn't keep myself from choosing a cool class back then, but I couldn't figure out how mana worked, so I was too embarrassed to tell you..." Maxwell spat some bullshit.

"So you were never a thief?" Bob looked shocked. "That's why you fell from the grate back then? I suppose all is well in the end, huh..." He said thoughtfully. Any other person would be angry at Maxwell, but Bob was a simple guy. All was well, so it was fine for him.

If he was being honest, Maxwell was getting a bit concerned about their future, as Bob was like a dog that could be distracted by a piece of meat.

Gaslighting leveled up Lvl 2 → 5

Maybe this skill wasn't as bad as it seemed after all.