-sou-

Allen finished releasing all the Dagger Flash he could launch for today. He was now feeling exhausted, he could feel that the energy inside his body was now depleted.

"Including the one in the bedroom, I could at most release four Dagger Flashes with a range of ten meters with my currenty energy.", he sat down on the gra.s.s as he looked at the cutted three trees.

"Is it me or are my flash stronger than Kate's?", Allen muttered. Kate's flash could at most cut the head of a normal bloodthirsty wolf in one release, but his, he could cut off a tree in one go.

'Is a tree much st.u.r.dier than a bloodthirsty wolf tho?', Allen wondered; afterwards sighed, because he just realized how small the amount of energy he has.

Kate could use flicker in a range of twenty meters three times a day, but how big would the amount of energy needed to execute each of them? Probably if Allen knew how to do a flicker, he can't even do it for once in a range of ten meters due to his small amount of energy.

"Next time, I should probably train with Firm Fists first.", Allen said to himself; then looked at the knife he was now using, earlier, he stole this knife from the marketplace without the merchant noticing it.

Allen examined the knife in his hands, "This is a good quality knife, I should return this to the merchant."

You could already consider him a thief already from being a pickpocket for a long time, however, he can't use this knife for anything else, so he might aswell just return it then.

"I should at least pay the merchant for using the knife, but then, I don't have any money... or maybe...", Allen stood up and walked towards the town.

***

Approximatedly two hours later in the marketplace...

-whoosh-

Allen quickly walked away from the street and into an alley. When he was finally at the end of the alley, he looked how much money he got from stealing from people's pockets.

He saw that it was one bronze coin, coupled with the money he stole from other people's pockets earlier, he now has ten bronze coins.

"I actually became faster when I pickpocket now.", Allen placed the one bronze coin inside the pouch with the other ones he stole earlier. He really did became faster now, and it's because of his newfound reflex when he battled in the Woods.

He walked away from the alley and went to the stall of the merchant, whom he stole the knife earlier.

The merchant was selling utensils, either wooden or made from metal. Taking the chance that the merchant was haggling the price of a spoon, he swiftly returned the knife from where he stole it and placed the pouch of ten bronze coins on top of it without anyone noticing. Afterwards, he left the marketplace.

Meanwhile, the merchant just finished haggling the price of a medium quality wooden spoon to a buyer for seven bronze coins. He then saw the pouch of bronze coins on top of a knife, he immediately took it and looked in it's contents.

The hat of the merchant was shadowing the upper half of his face, however, one could discern a smile as he muttered...

"Karma... how fated.", he emptied the pouch and put all the coins inside his wide pockets. After which, he hummed a tune.

***

After Allen walked out of the marketplace, he decided to now go towards the Three Heads Tavern for the second time this day as it was near dusk now and so that he doesn't need to sneak in the town.

Allen entered the tavern, he saw that there were only few people left drinking and eating. He sat down to wait for the night to come.

Meanwhile, Kate noticed Allen; she approached him and said, "You're so early!"

Allen scratched the back of his head, "Well, I got nothing to do, and you can't make me leave."

"Hmph.", Kate snorted and approached a customer.

After Kate left, Allen took the time left to rest and replenish his energy.

...

Night comes...

Mr. Sanchez walked down the stairs and saw Allen and Kate waiting for him.

He noticed Allen's eyepatch and asked, "Why are you wearing an eyepatch?"

Before Allen could answer, Kate said while trying to prevent herself from laughing, "He was beaten up by his little brother."

"Oh.", Mr. Sanchez expressionlessly nodded, but his eyes showed a different light.

"What are we going to do tonight?", Kate asked.

"There's nothing to do tonight, but you will teach Allen how to make a dagger flash.", Mr. Sanchez said.

"What?! Why me?", Kate complained.

'How to make dagger flash? This training just came at the right time.', Allen thought. He already knew how to make a dagger flash, but his dagger flashes are a bit inefficient.

Mr. Sanchez didn't answer her question and just said, "Don't worry, you won't be the only one that will train him."

"You're going to train him too?"

"No, I need to do something, Drake would help you instead.", Mr. Sanchez walked up the stairs and left Allen and Kate's sights

"Wait? Drake is coming back too?!", Kate's eyes twitched.

"Erm... who?", Allen asked.

Before the girl could answer, the back door of the tavern opened, and a boy wearing acommoner's clothes near the age of the two entered.

"Am I late?", the boy closed the door behind him and approached Kate and Allen.

"You're just a bit late, Drake.", Kate answered in a grave tone.

Allen was surprised by Kate's tone of voice, the former thought, 'What made Kate hate this guy to use that kind of tone?'

"Hi Kate, you still didn't get over it, I guess.", Drake then looked over at Allen. "You're the new guy?"

Before Allen could answer, Kate interjected and said with the same tone, "He's Allen." And she looked at Allen and used a lighter tone, "He's Drake, you can call him d*******."

"Hey, hey! Not in front of the new guy. It's embara.s.sing.", Drake said.

"Hmph! You go train him, I'm going somewhere else.", Kate exited through the back door.

"Ugh! She's so unsociable, well, looks like it's just you and me.", Drake said.

After a paused, he asked, "So, I'm going to train you on how to make a dagger flash?"

Allen nodded.

"Well then, let's go clear up some s.p.a.ce first.", Drake started to push a table towards to the side, followed by Allen who was carrying the chairs.

...

A few minutes later...

"Alright, this s.p.a.ce should be enough... catch.", Drake threw a dagger at Allen's feet

Allen picked up the dagger and inspected it, even though he wasn't a blacksmith or somebody smart who could check a weapon, he knew that this weapon was at least of above good quality.

"Do you already know how to control the energy inside your body?", Drake asked.

"Yes.", Allen nodded.

"Good, now try to control the energy with your will and channel it to the dagger through your hands.", Drake paused and said. "A little trivia, the strength of a dagger flash depends on the quality of the weapon and the amount of energy used."

Allen pretended to be surprised, he already knew about that, but he felt that he should at least act that he still doesn't so he won't be suspected.

He did what Drake instructed until he felt that that's all the needed energy to make a dagger slash.

"Good, you could actually control the amount of energy needed.", Drake nodded in satisfaction. "Now slash towards the tables."

"Huh, are you sure?", Allen asked. He just used a blunt knife earlier for a Dagger Flash and the flash pierced through the wall easily, then what about a above good quality dagger? What kind of damage would it produce?!

"Don't worry, the tables aren't made of ordinary wood.", Drake rea.s.sured.

"Alright then.", Allen immediately slashed forward.

-sou-

A dagger flash emerged from the weapon and flew at a table. When the flash hit the table, it stopped and disappeared, the table wasn't even affected.

Afterwards, Allen felt fatigue all over his body, he thought, 'Huh? My energy isn't fully replenished yet?' 

Well, he could only use Dagger Flash four times a day if he was full of energy. He only rested for a few hours and the energy he replenished was only enough for one Dagger Flash.

"What a powerful dagger flash, but it's too excessibly powerful, you don't need a dagger flash to be this powerful. Can you halve the usage of energy?", Drake asked.

"I'll try, but I'm out of energy.", Allen said.

"Oh? You must've been tiring yourself.", Drake took something from his pockets and threw it at Allen, the latter caught it and saw that it was the same pill that Kate used in the Woods.

'So that means what I'm using is indeed the energy of my body.', Allen's conjecture was proven by Drake's sentence.

"Eat that up and try again. I want to see how many dagger flashes you can make.", Drake said.

Allen swallowed the pill and he immediately felt that his energy was replenished to the max. He halved the energy he was always inserting in the dagger and depleted his energy again by launching eight dagger flashes simultaneously.

He felt fatigue spreading all over his body again, but Drake gave him another pill and the energy inside his body was replenished again.

"Again.", Drake said.

-sou-

The sound of dagger flashes echoed inside the tavern.