Vol 1 Chapter 9 (1/2)
CHAPTER 9 -TANG EN’S FURY
When Tang En made his way back to the wooden shack, he immediately entered the System s.p.a.ce. There, he could at least not constantly threw up like in reality.
“Ding, congratulation a.s.sa.s.sin Tang En on completing the Killing York Mission.
Difficulty: F
Performance Evaluation: D
Experience Gained: 200 points
HP gained: 150.”
“Ding, congratulation a.s.sa.s.sin Tang En on completing the qualifying a.s.sa.s.sin mission. The system rewards you with a new skill – ‘Heart Calm As Water’.”
The moment Tang En stepped inside the s.p.a.ce, a series of synthesized voices rang out.
The butler spoke, “Congratulation, a.s.sa.s.sin Tang En!”
Tang En showed an embarra.s.sed expression, “Sorry, yesterday I, I…”
“There is no problem, I didn’t pay it any mind.”
“Um, thank you.” Tang En nodded, then said full of frustration, “I really did not think Father York was such a person…”
The butler spoke, “The hearts of people are often unpredictable, and there is no one who can know everything about another person. It’s completely normal for you to have made such a mistake.”
Tang En nodded in appreciation. This had left a lasting impression deep inside him. He thought about the things the butler had said and asked quizzically, “It seems like you had judged from the start that Father York was not a good person, right?”
“First I must correct you, in my eyes there is no good or bad person. Even if he was a good person, there is no reason for me not to kill him, and if he was a bad person, there is also no reason for me to kill him.” The Housekeeper casually explained.
Finished speaking, his left arm swung up, causing a screen to appear. Inside the screen, scenes of every single moment Tang En had seen Father York replayed. Since the very first time he had seen him when he had pa.s.sed over to the several times he had ran into him by accident in the village.”
“Before I had already told you that I can see everything you can see. The only difference is, I can observe everything much more carefully. For example, right now, he is currently talking to an old farmer, but in reality his eyes were observing the b.u.t.tocks of a young lady pa.s.sing by. Of course, if it was a normal man then it’s nothing out of the ordinary, this was definitely something more attractive than an old farmer. But if you look closely, the look deep inside his eyes and his slight curve of his lips was a dangerous one. This is the sign of greed and possessiveness.”
“And here… and over there…”
The old butler continuously displayed images, changing their angles and explained everything on the screen.
Tang En listened carefully. Right now, the Housekeeper was a sort of G.o.d in his eyes.
Finally, the old butler said, “Do you understand? If not, it’s okay, this is only a small trick. In battle, you can sometimes make use of it. I will teach it to you.”
Tang En’s was moved, “If I learnt this, won’t I be able to see through people at a glance?”
The old butler shook his head, “I have already said before, people are unpredictable. There might be some who have the same way of thinking as York, but there’s no guarantee that he would do the things York did. Furthermore, judging others using their eyes is something that people will notice, and training against it is also very simple. If you pay too much attention to this, you might even be fooled by other’s eyes.”
Tang En nodded. He began to feel another headache coming. The images on the screen reminded him that York was currently dead.
“Are you alright?”
Tang En’s face was pale, “I can still hold on.”
The old butler advised, “Maybe you should try the skill ‘Heart Calm As Water’.”
“Heart Calm As Water?” Tang En was moved, it seems to be a skill granted by the system. He quickly opened up the a.s.sa.s.sin Board. Inside the previously empty Skill slot was now a new skill.
“Heart Calm As Water”, Innate Skill, not upgradeable – Hastens recovery of mental clarity and grants immunity to most negative effects. This skill has a duration time of 30 minutes and a 3 hour cooldown time. Consumes 100 HP.
“Innate Skill?” This was the first time he had seen this kind of skill.
“Innate Skills do not need you to train in order to use them, but instead directly use HP to activate the skill.”
“Oh… Ah, wait a second, no training? Then I need to learn all the other skills?”
“Of course!”
“I can’t just use them after acquiring a certain amount of skill points?”
“Skill points?” The butler frowned in surprise. He replied seriously, “Tang En, a.s.sa.s.sins can have a sense of humour, but killing people is not a game, and there are no skills without its weak points. Can you imagine what would happen if you begin to activate a combat skill and someone else suddenly pull out a crossbow, killing you immediately?”
“Ah, I understand. Then how do I use this skill?” Tang realised that his own thoughts were too simplistic, and quickly changed the topic.
“Chant it in your mind.”
“Heart Calm As Water.”
In the blink of an eye, a cold stream of air covered his entire body. Even though his heart was still in turmoil, his body no longer wanted to throw up.
Hoh, Tang En could not help but breathe out in relief.
The Housekeeper spoke, “This skill can only cure the symptoms and not the cause. This kind of negative condition after killing needs to be resolved properly.”
Tang En asked quickly, “How do I resolve it?”
“Each person needs a different method, you can only ask yourself.” Unfortunately, this was not something the butler can answered easily.
“Ask myself?” Tang En’s eyes widens.
Un, the butler nodded, “a.s.sa.s.sins must often complete life or death missions, and being afflicted by some sort mental ailment is not uncommon. If there is pressure inside you, then you must find a way to vent it.”
“Each a.s.sa.s.sin’s personality is different. If you are the lonely type, then you can lock yourself in a dark room and let out your blood, or the like. If your personality is a bit better, then you can do some more exciting things, like bare-handed rock climbing, race crazily, or become more active in bed, etc… The more peaceful methods involve reading, travelling, gardening, playing music, and similar things.”
“Currently, you can use the reasoning of good guys, bad guys to explain away your guilt of killing, but to be honest, I do not think this is a good idea. My advice is that you find things that you enjoy doing. These things don’t need to be anything intense. You must know, those eccentric lonely a.s.sa.s.sins always end up killing themselves.”
“… Actually, there’s a good method.” Finished listening to the butler, Tang En suddenly said.
“Oh?”
“All I need to do is stop being an a.s.sa.s.sin.”
The Housekeeper replied, “But you already killed.”
“… It’s not the same.”
“Are you saying York was not person?”
“To some extent, he was not even a human.”
“Your word games are laughable.”
“Up to you.” Tang En shrugged. Finished speaking, he climbed up the wooden house the butler had built using vines.