AGED

Bothersome

"Ah...oh, you're welcome." Leon didn't mind the shift in personality but his relaxed attitude changes when he felt something off from the ground that he is standing. Before it collapses, he exerted a little strength before he jumps into the air and the ground revealed metal spike rods that could skewer his body if he was a minute late in his response.  

"Why did I not detected that? Such ability to conceal a trap is admiring!" Leon could hear something twinkling around him but he couldn't see anything. Leon checked the trap with his skill >Finder<. It was a useful stolen skill to someone he don't remember anymore. 

『No outside power detected. A power called >Program< mainly from Earthex detected. Permission to extract sample through >Needle<. Confirm to start.』

Leon's brow raised and decided to cancel it for now.

"What are you doing Leon?" His attention went to Mint in his watch and to the system that is currently present at the moment. Leon tapped the surface of the watch and a groaning sound came out of it. 

"Can you not see this Mint?" Leon waved his arms with the dangling cape and Mint on the watch. 

"Can you....ugh! huk! Stop shaking me I feel it! Bleeegh!" A vomitting sound make Leon frown and he waited for her to recover. Passing to a dense forestation, Leon doubt that this is the right path and asked the dramatic AI.

"Are you sure this is the---" 

WOOOSH!

Leon leaped and landed on the same surface as before which made his jump delayed and he almost got pierce by the sharp metal rods but thanks to his skill >Dash< he made it to bounce up from the tip of the rod. After landing safely to a land an inch close to deadly hole, he look to the tree that being pierced by a metal arrow with liquid dripping from the tip. Leon was about to check it with his system when he remembered the question he wanted to ask Mint. 

"Mint look at this", Leon didn't wait for her answer and immediately scan the liquid which given him a result of poison. 

"What are you talking about? I just saw you crouching like an idiot there." Leon could imagine Mint rolling her eyes and when he looked at his watch the same expression he imagines so he rolled his eyes.

It took him several more traps to stay alive with and after being in the foulest mood, they finally saw a tall wall that separates outside from the inside. 

"Mint are we in the correct place? Is it really alright for me to go in here? I mean you see me right? I---"

BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!

"What the fuck--"

"FREEZE! PUT YOUR HANDS TO YOUR HEAD AND DON'T MOVE!" A loud mouth, no, a man towering Leon hollered at him while the other four arrives and went around him. Leon was on his guard and ready to retaliate if they happen to touch him. There is a few elderly that is gossiping near them and Leon doesn't want being talk at.

"Why aren't you moving? Heed to our orders or you will get punish by your stubborness! Again! Put your hands to your head!" His shout makes Leon's ear hurts. There is a reason why he couldn't follow their orders. They all are elderlies with that skin and bones with their fragile energy that sometimes fluctuates that will cause them to be bedridden for a good couple of days and sometimes makes them feel like superman that could do anything. 

For the second time, Leon didn't move that had caused the guards to click their tongue and snarled towards him but the one that had been talking to him since earlier cannot be stop by merely dissatisfaction in his voice and lifted his hand to slap Leon. The hand was about to imprint to his face when someone from inside was running towards them. They all had that stupid faces which irritates Leon that’s why a window of the skill >Needle< is right in front of his face, ready to bring judgments to the fools.

The newcomer reaches them and hit the hand of his superior. The elder guard grimace and put on an indescribable face but the young soldier did not worry about the consequences because what he worries about is the person right in front of them right now.

The youngest soldier looked at the man before him. He is covered with a cape which hides his body and face. It is accurate to assume that he is one of the younger generations by the way he is standing and how he is presenting himself. There is a whirlpool of ideas in his head but he goes to chief to tell them something. 

"A signal was seen from the indicators. Do not engage. I repeat, the message is do not engage." 

Leon heard the message and eventually lost the bones to retaliate. He cancelled the skill screen and their appearance made him annoyed. But what comes next makes Leon wanted to disappear right there. 

The guard lined up properly in front of him and in synchronization they bowed their heads. Gasp and exagerrated expression by the people nearby. 

"We are humbly asking for your forgiveness! We didn't mean to act rudely to a citizen abiding to the law. We are just doing countermeasures and doing our jobs. We are hoping that you understand sir. Once again, we are sorry for our behaviour." They bowed once more that had greatly shocked the few citizens that are taking witness. Leon doesn't want to be known by everyone. Thus he cleared his throat the Mint blinks that made the guards nervous. Leon didn't notice the changes and went on to pardon the rude guards and went away after refusing their nice hospitality of  preparing them with a room and a tour to the city. 

Leon was walking in the city and he tried his best to hide his skin. As someone different from everyone, Leon still believes that quantity can overpower quality if it was a massive ton. 

"Leon." Mint called which Leon casually answers. Low and unnoticeable. He doesn't want being caught as suspicious because of his voice. Thanks to his skill >Full Disguise<, his voice changes in that critical moment when he needed to answer the guards. 

"When I needed you, you became the dust in the wind and didn't even bother to lend a hand to save me. How untrustable." Leon keep his voice low as much as possible to avoid attention but Mint exhaled exasperatedly. 

"GAAAH! ME?! DIDN'T HELP YOU? WHO WOULD YOU THINK INFORMED THOSE IDIOTS NOT TO TAKE YOU AT THE DUNGEON AND BEAT YOU LIKE A PUSHOVER HUUUUUH?!!! HUH?!" Some of the heads were turning towards them and Leon hasten his steps. 

"Can you be quiet for a moment!" He said with gritted teeth and knitted brows. Mint still talks but Leon cover his watch and her voice turn into muffled sounds before he turn into an alley and look at the watch closely.

"Alright! You are not worthless and untrustable! But why you didn't told me sooner?! I felt being abandoned there you know! You don't know what I feel!" Like a child sullen to his mother, he blow some air while the latter didn't say a single thing. Mint stayed quiet and didn't bother to answer back at him which Leon find strange because normally, the AI will tell her true feelings but this time...is really strange. 

"I get it. I get it. For now let's just go to where Eucrid told me to do. Can we make up now and cooperate with one another so we can complete what Eucrid ask for us to do?" It took quite a while before Mint came back to her normal self and answered to Leon with low energy unlike her energetic self. 

"Yes, let's do that. Before we go to that part of the city, you must be very careful since this part of the city is very different from the normal places that we had been..." Before Mint could finish her words, Leon asked something that had been bugging him.

"Can you really not feel anything or sense something from me Mint? Is it really that dangerous?" Mint took longer to answer and every tick of the clock makes Leon nervous. 

"No, I don't detect anything." That made Leon sigh loudly while his skill is being active still. He is looking at >Full Disguise< that is currently activated and changes his overall appearance to an old man similar to the people around and Mint has no idea about it. 

"Are you really sure?" He asked once again before receiving the annoyed answer of the AI. 

"CAN YOU STOP BEING REDUNDANT?!" Leon shrugged which made Mint feel angry once more but she just explained the route and finally Leon could see the...not so expected store in his vision.

Broken signage that can't almost be recognized and the broken door with one screw left to attach it to the house. The broken pots with dried plants makes Leon feel like they are not in the right place but Mint insisted for him to go.

"What are you waiting for? Aren't you the one who wanted to get here faster than anyone else? Go inside!" The same high pitched voice makes Leon frown but eventually heed her words and went closer the store. He doesn't know how to open the door but managed not to break it but as soon when his feet touches the ground, the alarm on the store beep erratically and loud.