The Discarded Son's Skill Market

Khan, Martin, and the others looked at Zaid. Their eyes were wide as saucers. Rank F energy. Rank F strength. Rank F momentum. There was nothing about Zaid’s body that suggested otherwise: he was a Rank F.

Yet he dodged every blow from a powerful Rank C. He fiercely withstood every attack that could have landed and managed to fight back.

Everything they thought they knew about Rank Fs vanished in an instant. How did he manage to anticipate every attack with such precision?

However, there was one attack he didn’t see coming.

Zaid didn’t have time to dodge that spear that flashed before his eyes; it was too fast. It tore through the space of his S-Rank with tremendous speed and struck him in the shoulder.

His body was sent flying down the hallway until it slammed into the wall...

His teammates were concerned for his well-being, but they were all too busy. Although Khan was clearly superior to them in terms of power and skill, fighting four opponents who were at a similar level to him was too difficult.

Martin, Finn, and Kevin managed to shake off their opponents very easily and rushed to surround the archbishops.

"Mr. Khan, I think Gio is dead," Martin whispered, feeling a little uneasy. He was used to his companions dying, but this time it was a little different.

Gio wasn’t very talkative, but he understood things very well and knew a lot. Even though they hadn’t known each other long, they’d gotten along well. It wasn’t easy to watch someone you got along with die, and he knew that all too well.

The pain on his face was impossible to hide, and he had no intention of doing so.

Khan nodded. "We’ll check it out later. For now, I want to kill that guy in red," he whispered without pointing at anyone; only Martin, who was standing close to him, could hear him.

"I’ll do my best."

Martin brandished his spear and leaped over Khan to position himself right in front of the man in red, trying to buy Khan enough time for a fatal thrust.

He thrust his spear forward in straight attacks with almost no fixed target, with the sole intention of creating space and blocking his opponent’s line of sight. In a matter of seconds, he struck more than ten times, forcing the archbishop to remain on the defensive.

"Now, Khan!" Martin leaped to the side, allowing the archbishop to make contact with Khan, who had already prepared his attack.

His sword swept horizontally toward his opponent’s neck; but the attack wasn’t aimed at a single target. It was a combined attack in multiple directions, targeting the necks of all the archbishops at once.

The man fighting Martin took a step back, feeling a strange fear that later turned into a powerful and strange excitement, as if the mere fact of dying were thrilling to him.

BOOM!

An explosion occurred, and someone was hurled backward, slamming into the basement walls. The force of the impact sent debris crashing to the floor.

"Khan!"

"Mr. Khan!"

Everyone turned to look at the man who had been sent flying through the air. It was Khan.

Then they turned their bodies like robots toward the center of the room. Khan was extremely powerful, and the attack he was preparing was difficult to avoid or even counter. By sheer momentum alone, Khan possessed greater strength than any Rank B.

Who could have countered that force?

Glup!

Martin and the others swallowed hard...

In the middle of the room, dressed casually and without many adornments, Cardinal Marcellus appeared.

He frowned when he saw that two archbishops had been killed behind him. "What a powerful attack," he praised sincerely.

In fact... it was astonishing.

He couldn’t completely nullify it. However, the creator of that attack...

Khan fell to the ground and vomited blood. Where he had been impaled, there was a huge hole; at the bottom, you could see one of the villages shrouded in darkness.

"Cardinal..." Khan recognized him by the blow. Not just anyone could do something like that to him.

The moment he arrived, the entire battle came to a halt.

The archbishops and bishops retreated. The mercenaries didn’t dare to move.

An A-Rank as powerful as this could kill them with a single move...

Cardinal Marcellus looked around carefully and studied the faces. He didn’t find his target, so he looked further away.

Near Khan, two meters away from him, another body had fallen a second later; but this body fell motionless and face down. Next to it was a black cat...

The Cardinal recognized it immediately and frowned. "If he dies so soon, none of this will make sense," he whispered, then looked at the archbishops. "Grab him and heal him. He’s still breathing. Don’t let him die just yet."

"What should we do with the rest?"

The Cardinal looked behind him and summoned the entire guard. "Take everyone to the ritual hall. Even if it’s just three minutes late, if we keep this up, the prophet and the goddess will get so angry that we could die." The Cardinal sighed...

His job was such a burden.

The entire guard suddenly entered the hall and surrounded the mercenaries. Some tried to resist, screaming and crying... but they were all silenced in no time. Not even Khan could do anything this time.

The archbishops rushed toward Zaid, who was lying on the ground...

"We’ll heal him with a potion. We have to take him to the alchemy room," one of them whispered.

Then they picked him up...

-

At that moment...

On a plane other than Earth, an encounter was taking place.

It wasn’t the first one, though.

"It’s you again," Valia whispered softly. "How did you manage to enter my spiritual sea? I saw you in Zaid’s body, but..."

"You’re connected to him—don’t be surprised by trivial matters," replied a small snake before her. Its black and blue colors shimmered against the chaos of a spiritual sea.

Valia furrowed her cat-like brow. "What do you want?"

"Good. Now you know how to ask questions," the snake laughed.

"Someday I’ll find out who you are, anyway." Valia shrugged in frustration. The last time, she’d been defeated by a stupid snake...

Well, he wasn’t stupid... he was the craftiest snake she’d ever seen.

Good heavens, she’s a cat! She’s used to hunting snakes.

She’d spent her whole life hunting snakes.

But she’d been completely outwitted by one and defeated on her master’s territory...

She’d be deeply humiliated and would never be able to hold her head up again if that incident were mentioned within her clan. The only thing that reassured her was knowing that this wasn’t just any snake—it was very strong, unique, and dangerous.

The snake laughed. "It seems that everything I told you before has come true," he said.

Valia sighed and slumped her shoulders when he brought up the subject. "Actually, I did make fun of you back then, but I have to admit you were right."

"Admitting it is the mark of a wise person." The snake teased her a little with a mocking tone.

"Will you get to the point? How did you know all that? Even my wounded spirit... Was it you who did that?"

"Hey." The snake swayed, shaking itself off. "I’m a scavenger—have you ever seen me use venom or spiritual attack powers? Like bodies and souls, little kitten, I don’t hurt people with cheap tricks."

"So you know who did it?" Valia pressed quickly, noticing something in his words.

"I know, but you’re not ready to know yet."

"Huh? My spirit has been wounded, snake! My master is supposed to be your master. You should help me."

"There are some things you simply shouldn’t know. Didn’t your father ever teach you that some knowledge can kill you? That cat upbringing really is lacking."

Valia was fuming at this latest taunt, but she said nothing more. She remained silent, took a deep breath, and opened her eyes once more. She didn’t ask any questions either.

"Zaid is in terrible trouble," the snake said suddenly, glancing toward a region of the spiritual sea where an attack against him was brewing and he was about to die.

"I already know that. I can see it."

"No, you can’t see it."

"Do you think I’m blind?"

"I think you see just fine. Cats have better eyesight than any other animal. Especially now that you’ve improved your..."

"Get to the point." Valia interrupted him. She’d noticed that this guy liked to talk a lot about technical details.

"Sigh, cats sure are impatient."

"I’m not impatient—Zaid is about to die!"

"Sigh. Don’t worry, just look closely."

"At what?"

"Don’t you see that nobody’s moving?"

"Because it looks like a picture."

"No. They just can’t move. I’ve bought you some time so you can do something."

"Y-you’ve bought me some time? What are you talking about?"

"Stop asking unnecessary questions." The snake scolded her again, but didn’t take its eyes off Zaid.

"That boy is in big trouble, and you’re about to witness it. You’re going to have to help him. You’re a spirit—surely you’ll know what to do. But if you don’t, then tell him that the only way out of there is to ’look around him.’ Oh, by the way. Tell him not to trust people so easily. Although I suppose it won’t do any good—he’s gullible as hell. Someday he’ll learn." The snake laughed and, without wasting another second, disappeared, though a echo of its voice lingered.

"Do something fast." Then he paused. "Look, isn’t there a gap over there? Use it to escape. The more time that passes—even if it’s just a second—the better. Let the seventh one fall and the eighth one come. I guess then you’ll know what to do. Oh, and don’t forget that you’ll fall too. Time’s up—deal with it."