He did not dare to stay in one place at all, so as he moved around, his instincts kept warning him of impending danger, and his body reacted accordingly.
As a thief, if there was one thing he trusted more than anything else—it was his intuition. His gut feeling. His hunter's instinct. Or whatever you might want to call it.
He trusted it to such an extent that even if his brain hadn't processed it yet, his body would already be moving the moment danger approached—just because his instincts screamed at him.
He never quite understood it, but his father did.
Back during their training, around eight or nine years ago during the Qi Sensing Era, his father was the first to notice it. He said his son had the instincts of a born predator—a hunter, a soldier, someone who had lived through countless life-and-death scenarios.
Leon's body was like a danger detector—sniffing out threats and escaping just moments before disaster struck.
That's what a true thief's instinct looked like.
People often said a thief's only strength was running. But Leon wasn't just any thief.
He was the Super Thief—one that could face danger head-on and walk away unscathed.
His father sometimes wondered if Leon's instinct was actually his innate ability. His main skill. But he had never liked the thought of it. So what if you could detect danger? If you couldn't fight back, or run fast enough, or react like a "normal person," what was the point?
That's why, after a lot of thought, he put his son through harsh training while his brain was still young and malleable.
And it paid off.
Right now, his thief instincts had evolved to a level where Leon could practically see danger with his eyes closed. He trusted those instincts with his life.
But there was one thing his father got wrong.
Leon was not a "normal person." His path was different. His logic, his reactions, his destiny—it all ran opposite to the conventional.
So as Leon kept dodging, weaving through attacks, his eyes were locked onto the chicken. He had stopped observing for a while, focused on killing it as quickly as possible.
The chicken's body was soaked in blood. The red feathers had darkened, matted by wetness, and in some places the blood had dried, giving the feathers a dull, glistening sheen. The way light hit those feathers made them slightly reflective—like a warped, reddish mirror. If someone stared too long, they might even see their own distorted silhouette.
It was a bit distracting.
And when you combined that with the horde of attacking birds, it could cost him everything.
He had to focus. Fully. Sharply.
Shaking off the growing fatigue, his silver hair catching the wind like molten thread, Leon returned to his task.
The chicken was so consumed by anger that it had completely forgotten its own body's limits.
And that was going to cost it.
Or… was it?
Because something began to change.
Before Leon could figure out what was happening, the chicken entered Berserk Mode.
Its eyes turned crimson. Its feathers stiffened and stood straight like a display of fury, not unlike a peacock's. The scales on its legs glinted like hardened bronze, its beak grew sharper, meaner.
It began to consume its own life force.
All in exchange for a brief, terrifying burst of power.
It was intimidating. It was monstrous.
This type of phenomenon only happened when one's rage crossed a certain threshold. A primal switch flipped—and they sacrificed everything for strength.
Leon's heart dropped.
And then—
┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
MUTATED CHICKEN (Berserk)
•─────⋅☾ Stats ☽⋅─────•
LVL: 1
HP: 1
Strength: 20
Stamina: 20
Agility: 20
Defense: 10
Intelligence: 3
•─────⋅☾ Skills ☽⋅─────•
New Skills Acquired!
Raging Torrents of Pecks!
Unleashes a flurry of pecks in rapid succession for 60 seconds. Strength increases by 10% when using this skill. Pecking speed is 3x faster than a woodpecker. Used in combination with Skill #2.
Angry Pursuit
Increases Speed and Agility drastically, allowing continuous pursuit of a target while using Skill #1.
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛
Leon's lips parted slightly in disbelief.
He didn't have time to analyze it. He had to move.
Now.
Before the chicken acted, he needed to strike. There was no way he could handle it at full rage strength. That peck barrage would tear him apart.
The chicken was delighted. It didn't understand the source of this sudden power, but it didn't care. It knew it had to use it fast. This wasn't something permanent.
But before it could even charge—
Ten swift strikes landed in quick succession.
All aimed at the same exact spot: the neck.
The dagger danced like a whisper of death—fast, silent, precise.
And on the tenth strike—
The world started spinning.
Its neck twisted at an unnatural angle.
Then its head began to spin.
It hit the ground with a sickening thud, its wattle trembling with the impact.
The pain was unimaginable. Even as it bled out, the chicken's rage burned like wildfire. Its vision blurred… then cleared from sheer hatred alone.
It turned its half-working eyes—what was left of them—toward its killer.
Leon.
And what was Leon doing?
Dancing absentmindedly as if dodging the wind itself. His silver hair fluttering like moonlight.
His attention wasn't even on the chicken anymore. It was on the dagger in his hand—the blood on it, glistening, dripping.
He didn't feel a thing. Just… emptiness.
And of course—who would feel anything from killing a chicken?
Then, darkness.
Its consciousness faded. Just like that… it was over.
The death of the chicken.
And the start of something new.
Leon dodged another bird's lunge, staring down at the chicken's corpse.
He wondered… would anything happen?
And then—it did.
The body vanished. Dissolved into sparks like it had never been there.
Two silver coins dropped.
And a weapon?
"What's this?" Leon blinked, crouching to pick it up.
The moment his fingers touched the handle, a familiar screen appeared.
┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓
TEETHED DAGGER
Attack Power: +1
Speed: +1
Rank: E
┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛
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Note:
Attack Power and Speed are not tracked individually by Leon's system. They are either added to the base stats or distributed across related categories.
Leon's base Attack Power = 1
So a hit on a beast of the same level would reduce HP by -1.
Equipping the dagger increases it to 2.
Equipping both daggers = 4 total Attack Power.
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A/N:
Not confusing, right?
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