21: Red Riot Trouble
Aidan stared blankly at the threatening man before him. Haley already knew how the situation was turning out, dipping in between the shelves to get out of sight.
The man continued to stare at Aidan, an easy smile plastered on his lips. Aidan scanned the man just to be sure, and was surprised.
Warrior, Level 13.
That’s a pretty high level.
Yet, compared to facing the Night Goblin the other night, he didn’t give off that dangerous edge that made Aidan’s spine tingle in alarm. If anything, the hostility shown in his soul felt almost hollow.
He supposed that was the reason why he didn’t feel that alarmed at the man’s threatening words.
“Sorry, I didn’t catch that,” Aidan said, tilting his head at him. “You said you wanted to know about someone?”
“Cut the crap,” the man hissed. “Tell me what you know about Nina Alcatroz, or I’ll burn this fucking store to the ground with you in it.”
The man closed in, his steps ringing out in the air before coming face to face with Aidan. He pulled out a wicked-looking dagger, pointing the tip at Aidan’s face.
“I don’t mind cutting you up a little in the meantime. But I suggest you don’t waste more of my time. Tell me about Nina, now.”
Aidan stayed silent, pouring his eyes all over the man and his posture, his positioning, and his current power. His Sense Vibrations pulled out all the stops, peering in deeper than he ever had with anyone else.
The more he scanned the man, peering into his soul in ways that not even Nina could pierce through, the more relaxed he became. As if he noticed that, the man twisted his face into a snarl before plunging the knife deep into the counter in front of him, digging deep into the wooden surface with a sharp noise that made Haley yelp out in response.
“Didn’t you hear me, fucker?! I said tell me everything! Or are you deaf?”
“I heard you,” Aidan said, even pulling up his finger to his ear to rub at the inside. “A little too loudly, too. I’m just not bothering to.”
“Ooh, so we got a tough guy here,” the man cackled, easily pulling the knife out of the wooden counter and spinning it deftly between his fingers. “A little level 5 Mage thinks he can play with the big boys. What, you’re tryna’ impress that girl pissin’ her pants or something? It’s not worth getting your throat torn out, you know.”
“You’re not gonna do that,” Aidan said, making the man instantly frown. “You’re not gonna do anything.”
“And who the fuck do you think you are to say that, huh?”
The man lifted his leg and kicked the counter off the floor, blasting it over to the side and crashing it into a nearby wall. Haley shouted in alarm, ducking her head and covering it with her hands. Aidan, however, didn’t even feel that alarmed by it, knowing exactly what the man was planning to do.
Because he could. Every last detail. He knew when the man was going to move, and what he planned on doing. His soul sang his actions to his mind, and every time he did something, it told him it had no intention of actually harming Aidan.
All the while, Aidan was already at work formulating his spells to work to his advantage. He kept glancing at the floor where the man’s feet were as the man stepped closer and closer towards Aidan. His soul, this time, finally made a loud enough buzz that shouted at Aidan that he was about to get attacked.
“Huh, big man?!”
The man’s dagger flashed in an instant, aiming for Aidan’s upper body. But despite it all, Aidan didn’t move a single step.
The man, however, stopped mid-way, his dagger flying out of range of Aidan’s head and out into the open air.
“Ghaaaah!” The man howled, his eyes widening and his body shaking. Looking down, he saw blood starting to pool underneath the soles of the man’s boots, his toes struggling beneath the leather enough to be noticed.
“Aaah, fuck!”
The man tried to step back, but he swerved and tilted instead as though he was stuck in place. Haley pulled up from her hiding position to see the reaction for herself, then stared down at the floor.
When the man finally moved his foot, he had to yank it out of the sudden spike jutting out of the floor, slicked in red.
“O-Oh my god,” Haley almost gagged at that.
“You?! What did you do?!”
The man pulled his other foot out, only for another of those spikes to appear with the same amount of blood coating it. When the man finally stood upright, his eyes beginning to tear up from the pain, Aidan only smiled.
The man howled in pain once again, now his body bending downwards as more blood kept pouring out from his feet. Because once again, more spikes jutted out and pierced his feet.
Haley covered her mouth in shock as though feeling the pain for herself, something that nobody should have to go through. But Aidan wasn’t playing around.
“I think it’s best if you leave before you start messing up my floor even more,” Aidan said, his tone dripping in sarcasm. “Unfortunately I don’t sell potions, so I suggest you find somebody to treat your sudden injuries, sir.”
The man howled in pain again, pulling up his foot and stepping down, ready to go after Aidan, but his foot was once again pierced the moment he stepped down. As though in a reflex, the man kept trying to pull his foot away from the ground to land on something else, only for the same process to occur over and over again.
Time and time again, the man howled and cried out in pain, now beginning to tear up as spikes kept digging into his feet every time he stepped down. Finally having enough, he pulled himself off the ground and lunged towards the exit of the store, wanting to get the hell away from this suffering.
Unfortunately Aidan wasn’t keen on being merciful. The man landed hard against the floor, only to get pierced again by the same spikes across his body, making him bleed out and cry some more. Haley had enough and just covered her eyes as the man, begging for the sweet release from the pain, pulled the door aside and lunged away, tumbling over the stairs and landing hard on the ground outside.
Finally not suffering any more spikes from within the horrors of the store, the man picked himself up and limped desperately away, looking back every so often and even looking desperately at the ground for any incoming spikes ready to pierce him.
Aidan let out a small breath before walking over to the open door and closing it, finally bringing this incident to an end. Looking back, he saw the floor absolutely covered in splotches of blood, showing the shapes of shaky footprints all over, making it a pretty disturbing sight.
“Uhh… Haley, I might need some help cleaning this up,” Aidan said, turning over to the young girl whose eyes were wide with horror. “And, uhh, sorry you had to see that.”
“D-Did you really have to do it like that?” Haley quivered, her legs still trembling as she pulled herself up with the help of the shelves for support. “That looked so painful…”
“I didn’t want to kill him out in the open daylight,” Aidan explained. “And I wanted to scare him off. I didn’t know what else to do except traumatizing him to think he’ll lose his feet if he steps into my store again.”
At least, that was what he hoped for. He knew that it wouldn’t be the last one who would come searching for Nina, though he had no idea why the man was searching for Nina in the first place. Haley only nodded in short understanding, then grimaced when she saw the mess in front of her.
“T-This might take a while,” Haley admitted.
“Good thing we’re closing up,” Aidan said. “Now come on, hop to it. Get me a mop and a bucket. I’ll, uhh, get these spikes out of here.”
Unfortunately his own handiwork made quite a bit of a mess of the floor, so he had to stay behind and fix the flooring so that it wouldn’t harm his future customers.
…..
The next few days were a blur since Haley joined the Raining Treasures. After the first incident occurred with the ruffian who tried to extort information out of them, Aidan did a little digging and found out that the man was from the Red Riot gang.
With his nightly ventures, he took the time to scan the area to find the guy who was currently resting in some doctor’s clinic of sorts, his feet bandaged all over. He was still crying out in pain, which made Aidan figure out that having instant healing magic or potions like in most fantasy games or shows isn’t that readily available. Considering that Haley’s brother was still recovering despite receiving a well-made potion from her, it was further proof that instant healing is pretty high-level stuff.
Anyways, back to the Red Riot. Apparently they were looking for the Key Slinger who made a mess with them one time, forcing them to try to recover their lost pride and do some investigating. After finding out that she often visited the Raining Treasures, they sent one of their goons to sack the place to get back at her.
Aidan could only sigh when he found out that it might not be the last time they tried to ransack the place. And since he was responsible for the store, he had to be the one to clean up Nina’s mess.
So he took the chance to keep going out on his nightly adventures with his shortsword to rack up some experience points. For now, he only traversed through the forest, taking out every monster that came his way. Mostly horned wolves and the very rare Night Goblins that often came up his path, and since then, he had gathered up quite a few levels.
Level Up! From Level 5, you became Level 6!
You have gained:
+1 Free Attribute point
+3 Free Stat points
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
…..
Level Up! From Level 6, you became Level 7!
You have gained:
+1 Free Attribute point
+3 Free Stat points
+1 Intelligence
+1 Toughness
+1 Dexterity
+1 Vigor
Throughout all of this, he tried to practice casting more spells while using his Soul Meditation, but even with Multicast under his belt, the struggle to cast more spells was still dominant in his mind. He tried to use Craft while within his Soul Meditation Shortsword, only to end up losing control over his sword for a moment and ending up just casting it right in his room.
But he kept focusing more on the aspect of Multicast, eventually trapping a horned wolf under some soil so that his sword could pierce into it for an instant kill. But the mana cost was severe and landed him with a headache, forcing him to call it quits for that night.
Though thanks to that, he managed to get at least one upgrade.
Skill Upgraded! Multicast (Copper) became Multicast (Bronze)!
It certainly made casting multiple spells a bit easier on his head, and the mana cost was slightly reduced. He thought about using Magic Boost from his Mage Class ability, but every time he returned back to his physical body, he found that his mana pool was always reaching the low end, forcing him to reconsider the skill for later.
He didn’t like the idea of making his mana pool ever reach zero, as just reaching the lower digits was enough for him to feel like death was coming. If he wasn’t careful, his soul might return to a dead body that gave out long ago.
Still, he had enough levels under his belt to increase his stats again. He kept using the good old 5/10/15 stat spread, wanting to increase his highest Intelligence stat further.
He thought about putting his stat points into Wisdom to increase his mana pool, but he knew bringing up Intellect would also be a good choice, and he personally wanted to round out his stat spread on his Intelligence attribute a little bit.
He then spent the remaining points on his second highest, his Agility attribute. Thanks to his Class, his Dexterity was getting high up there, so he wanted to spread out like with his Intelligence attribute by bringing up his Speed and Reflex, both important stats to consider for survival.
Thanks to that, his build was approaching the set up he made for himself. Thanks to that, his body never felt more equalized than ever before. He woke up with a clearer head, and his body moved so smoothly, the complete opposite of how he usually woke up every morning with his pre-system body in his world.
Of course, with Agility over ten now, he received another title.
You have gained a title!
“Speedster I”
You raised your Agility attribute to 10. A great achievement!
+1 Agility
He was starting to see a pattern here, making him wonder whether pushing them to 20 would give him more points. He wasn’t going to rush to find the answer, but it was nice to see that balancing his stats came with some sweet rewards as well.
Out of curiosity, Aidan asked Haley how her stat spread looked, and that was where he realized his mistake. When he asked that, Haley looked incredibly uncomfortable, her eyes darting left and right as though he just asked her what she would look like without any clothes on.
He quickly amended it, trying to say that back where he came from, it was natural to ask for your stat build. But in the end, Haley just shifted to asking about what kind of culture his old land was, making Aidan figure that asking for one’s stat spread was taboo in the social standards of this world.
Haley was already starting to get accustomed to working in the Raining Treasures, so the last thing he wanted to do was make her think he was some weird pervert for numbers. In a way, he kinda was–he was curious how high her Agility stat was, and whether increasing Strength improved her athleticism. For now, he didn’t care about it if it meant making Haley uncomfortable.
Now that he thought about it, if that was how society viewed their stat build, then Nina having the talent to see all of that must be even worse than he expected.
The customers who would come by Raining Treasures were enamoured by Haley, often saying that she was the new mascot for the store for how she always helped others find what they were looking for, and particularly helping out when even the customers had a hard time explaining what they needed. It took Aidan a solid while to figure out exactly what a customer was looking for, so having Haley who was more acclimated to this environment was a godsend in helping the folks here.
As for the two themselves, Aidan was glad to say that Haley got so used to working that she started snapping at him to keep up with his work, getting her to nag at him to hurry up with the crafting process to keep the customers flowing in and out with more efficiency. While he grumbled at times, it was better than her being constantly on her feet, watching Aidan’s mood like a hawk to avoid stepping on a potential landmine.
He didn’t mind at all, so that made the store a little bit brighter than how it was when he was by himself. Unfortunately that was only half the time as, like before, his store was a constant target for ruffians looking for Nina.
For instance, out in the store front, Haley was just settling some items down on the shelves when the door was slammed open, a repeated gesture of some rude customers coming in. Aidan groaned inwardly as three men came up to the front, crowding around each other like a squadron ready for deployment.
“We’re looking for Nina Alcatroz!” The man in the lead front shouted, a rather basic-looking man with short hair and only wearing a vest, revealing his chest and muscly arms. The other two were no different, with some wearing jangling accessories that seemed over the top. “And don’t think for a second we’re any easy to drop!”
Haley, despite being close to them, rolled her eyes so hard that it actually caught the guys by surprise before she turned around.
“Aidan, they’re here again,” she said, her tone devoid of any fear or terror.
“Goddammit, and we just cleaned this place up,” Aidan groused.
“You mean I cleaned this place up. You barely did anything!”
“But you do it so well,” Aidan joked. “I’m scared to mess up your great work.”
Haley scoffed at that, smoothly putting a basket carrying tiny containers onto the shelf before walking back towards the counter. The men just looked at the pair dumbfoundedly before the lead man’s jaw tightened.
“Are you even listening to me? I said to drop what you got and tell me about Nina Alcatroz!”
The men started flashing their weapons, their classes ranging from Warriors to Thieves sporting over 10 levels. They brought out knives and sabres from their holsters, ready to start their intimidation.
For Aidan, this was the third time this week since the Red Riot kept trying to harass them. The second time, there was one guy who tried to make a scene in front of his customers, so Aidan did his usual disturbing feet spike method. He didn’t take it far enough so that the customers wouldn’t think his floor was a constant spike trap.
However, it looked like the Red Riot came in prepared. He looked down to see them wearing heavily armored boots, the metal covering their soles and protecting them from the wooden material underneath. Even if Aidan used the spikes, it wouldn’t pierce as easily against metal.
But what they didn’t realize is that it was just Aidan free-styling with his magic. He could do way more than just making spikes. As proof of his increased stats and level, Aidan brought up a hand and waved it around.
His Craft spell finalized and several wooden constructs started jutting out of the floor and the walls, surprising the men before entrapping them into a wooden cocoon, completely covering them from head to toe.
“What the fuck?!”
“G-Get me out of here!”
“You bastard! I’m going to rip you apart when I get out of here!”
The men shouted in alarm, but their voices were muffled as they kept trying to cut through the cocoon with their weapons. Unfortunately due to how close they were all to each other, Aidan could hear sharp gasps and grunts from them accidentally cutting each other without thinking.
Haley, off to the side, just shook her head at the sight. Aidan took a glance at her and smirked, getting her to widen her eyes.
“No, you better not–”
Before Haley could say anything more, Aidan flicked a finger and the cocoon started to spin. All the while, horrific screams echoed out from within the cocoon, all three men screaming out in pain and begging for Aidan to stop.
He just installed tiny spikes from within the walls of the cocoon, and now the torture machine was created as he made a literal blender for the men inside. It wasn’t as bad as Haley thought it would be, the spikes being about a centimeter or so, but with how close they were and how fast the cocoon was spinning, it definitely wasn’t a pretty sight.
Soon the man-made torture device ceased spinning, and the walls surrounding the men collapsed onto itself. Blood seeped onto the floor as the men fell out of the trap, dropping to the ground and making a mess everywhere. Haley just groaned out loud at the disturbing sight.
“Oh come on! You know how hard it is to get rid of the blood?” Haley nagged, pointing at the floor and the surrounding shelves.
“Hey, hey, don’t worry. I got a way to get rid of the blood now. So,” Aidan said, crossing his arms across his chest. “You want some more? Or are you going to leave my shop?”
The men listened to his words and instantly picked themselves up and ran through the entrance, knocking over some of the shelves in their panic as they left panting and screaming, saying stuff like how the store was a hellhole with a demon inside.
Once they left, even Aidan started to notice that perhaps he took it a bit too far, but he knew those types of people. They would just keep coming back in waves, more confident than ever, if Aidan used some ordinary method to keep them out of the store. He had to inflict a sort of terror on them that would force them to sear the fear into their memories, making sure that at the very least, the same ones wouldn’t be coming back.
Considering that new people from the Red Riot kept coming in, rather than seeing the first few he saw before, it was proof that his methods were working. At some point, the Red Riot would learn not to mess with the Raining Treasures. He even gained a notification from the trouble.
You have gained a new title!
“Torturer”
Develop new ways to inflict pain on your targets in creative ways. Not exactly an ideal pastime, but you do you.
+1 Might
+1 Toughness
+1 Vigor
“Ah… I’ll take care of the cleaning. You can just go rest, Haley,” Aidan said, feeling a bit bad for putting Haley through another one of his messed-up methods again.
“Yeah, I plan to!” Haley huffed, going to the back of the store for the night.
Another day, another lesson taught to the Red Riot. Once Nina came in, he planned on saying a few words about leaving things unattended.