Chapter 3: A Spectacular Tactical Error

[The Dumb Host has reached an incorrect conclusion. I suggest the Dumb Host not be complacent.]

"Watch me then! Watch me prove you’re wrong!"

Zishan followed the movement exactly as he understood it. Mana rushed downward as his foot struck the ground. Immediately, the world disappeared from where it was supposed to be.

WHIZZ!

"WHOOOOOOAAAAAA—"

Several soldiers ahead watched the young man vanish from sight.

"Where did he go?! Why did he suddenly disappear?!"

"Stay alert! This may be a trap set by those Olmost soldiers! Their commander has always been ruthless and cunning! Don’t fall for it!"

"Right! This might be a ploy, and that kid was just some sacrifice their commander sent onto the battlefield!"

A moment later, Zishan appeared almost twenty meters away, but his hips were already leaning sideways.

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

He smashed through a hanging cloth and bounced shoulder-first against a soldier’s shield. A groan escaped his mouth as he spun halfway around before crashing into several wooden crates stacked beside one of the tents.

Wood splintered beneath him as he disappeared into the pile.

"..."

For a few seconds, everyone nearby simply stared.

"..."

Then, Zishan’s head slowly emerged between two broken planks. He could not even figure out why he was still alive and somehow capable of sitting upright.

"..."

"...Uh, h-hello. Hehe..."

The soldier whose shield he had struck raised his sword and stabbed downward.

"FUCK!"

Zishan rolled away before the blade reached him, stumbled upright, and immediately began running again. His mind was already in a state of complete haywire, screaming curses that probably weren’t even known to humanity.

[Perfected Glimpse provides perfected understanding. It does not provide the Dumb Host with perfected physical execution. The Dumb Host should be mindful and careful if he doesn’t want the System to forcefully find another, more intelligent Host.]

"You couldn’t have explained that before I threw myself across the fucking enemy camp! It was clearly your fault for not telling me!"

[The Dumb Host declared that the Skill was easy.]

"I WAS CONFIDENT! STILL, YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME ABOUT IT!"

[There is nothing the System can do with a Dumb Host like you.]

"Tch!"

Ignoring the System’s taunting prompts, Zishan kept running.

The soldiers around him finally recovered from their confusion and rushed forward, forcing him to weave between tents while several more enemies poured out from farther inside the camp.

He should have been overwhelmed immediately.

Yet something about the way they moved had become much easier to follow.

Amazingly so!

A swordsman approached from his right. Another soldier was trying to intercept him from the front, while a third intended to circle one of the tents and catch him from the side.

Zishan did not consciously calculate any of this. His body simply reacted before he could even think about it.

He ducked beneath the first swing, stepped around the second soldier, and barely avoided the third man’s spear.

Then, his eyes widened.

"Whoa!"

A new greenish panel flashed in the corner of his vision.

[ASHEN BANNER BLOODLINE]

[Conflict Resonance detected.]

"What does that mean?!"

[The Ashen Banner Bloodline responds favorably to genuine conflict.]

Zishan narrowly avoided another sword while his expression twisted in disbelief. "IT LIKES THIS?! WHAT A BLOODLINE!"

[Correct.]

"What kind of psychopathic Bloodline did you give me?! Are you serious right now?!"

[Yes. The System has never made a mistake since earlier.]

"Tch!"

Ignoring the System’s taunting prompts again, Zishan could already feel what the Bloodline was doing.

The battlefield still terrified him, and being chased by armed strangers remained one of the worst experiences of his life, yet panic was no longer taking over his entire body.

His awareness seemed sharper whenever danger approached, and even when someone clipped his shoulder with the edge of a weapon, the pain did not overwhelm him the way he expected.

That only made the soldiers chasing him even more convinced that he was dangerous.

"He’s using some kind of movement magic!"

"Don’t let him get away! He should be someone important from the Olmost Kingdom!"

"He has been hiding his strength!"

Zishan looked back at them as though they had personally offended him. "HIDING WHAT STRENGTH?! I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE I AM! AND WHAT THE HELL IS OLMOST KINGDOM?!"

"He’s mocking us!"

"Kill him!"

"HOW DID THAT SOUND LIKE MOCKING?!"

A spear flew directly toward his chest.

This time, Zishan did not simply panic. The Perfected Glimpse showed him the answer almost instantly. His left foot shifted. Mana gathered through his veins as Rift Steps activated again.

WHIZZ!

The world blurred.

Zishan appeared several meters away, still moving forward.

More importantly...

He remained standing.

His mouth opened slowly.

"...I did it."

[Correct.]

"I fucking did it!"

[Execution Accuracy: Approximately eight percent.]

His smile disappeared almost immediately.

"Eight?"

[Eight percent.]

"Could you not have waited five seconds before ruining that for me?!"

[The System values accuracy.]

"WELL, I DON’T RIGHT NOW!"

An explosion shook the camp behind him, but Zishan kept moving.

Now that he had used Rift Steps twice, he was beginning to understand the difference between knowing how a Skill should work and actually being capable of making his body perform it.

The Perfected Glimpse was almost annoyingly clear.

His previous step had released Mana too early. His knee had risen too high. His shoulders had turned slightly before his hips. Even the amount of force he had used was wasteful.

The information was already there, as though someone had shoved years of corrections directly into his head. It was that clear to him.

"Fine! Again!"

He tried once more.

His foot struck the ground.

Mana flowed.

Rift Steps activated.

WHIZZ!

This time, he crossed several meters without crashing into anything, and when he emerged, both feet landed properly beneath him.

Several pursuing soldiers stopped in disbelief.

"His movement changed again."

"He improved?!"

"That was completely different from the first time!"

"Impossible! Did he just learn that Skill?! He’s definitely a prodigy from their Kingdom! Quick! Seize him! We might be able to offer him to the commander so our Kingdom could profit from it!"

Zishan heard them, and despite the circumstances, his lips slightly twitched when he heard their remarks. "I’m not some kind of noble kid, am I? If I am, then why am I on the battlefield?!"

He faced forward again.

His arrogance lasted less than two seconds.

More soldiers were coming toward him from deeper inside the camp. Some carried spears. Others had shields.

One man in dark red armor was riding a horse directly down the central path.

Farther behind them, another soldier raised one hand.

Fire gathered around his palm.

Zishan stared at the growing ball of flame, feeling a sense of foreboding.

"...System."

[Yes, Dumb Host?]

"Can Rift Steps go backward?"

[Yes.]

He immediately turned around, only to find the soldiers who had been chasing him still coming.

Zishan looked forward again.

More soldiers were waiting there.

He glanced back once more, as if the first group might have politely disappeared during the last two seconds. Well, unfortunately for him, they had not.

His expression slowly went blank.

"...I appear to have made a tactical error."

[Correction.]

His eye twitched.

[The Dumb Host has made several tactical errors.]

"I’M GOING TO DELETE YOU!"

[The Precedence System cannot be deleted.]

"I’LL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT!"

The fire mage released the spell before Zishan could continue threatening his own System.

A sphere of flame streaked toward him.

"FUCK!"

Zishan’s eyes widened, but the Perfected Glimpse showed him what to do before panic could completely swallow him.

Mana gathered along his leg. Then, his foot shifted.

"RIFT STEPS!"

WHIZZ!

He activated the Skill at the last possible moment.

The fireball flew past the place where Zishan had been standing and exploded among the soldiers chasing him.

BOOM!

Several men were thrown into the mud.

One of them staggered back to his feet and screamed toward the camp.

"YOU BASTARDS! WATCH WHERE YOU’RE FIRING!"

"HE’S THE ENEMY!"

"WE KNOW! WE’RE THE ONES CHASING HIM!"

"THEN STOP RUNNING DIRECTLY BEHIND HIM!"

"WHERE ELSE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO CHASE HIM FROM?!"

Zishan looked between the two groups.

"...Oh."

His eyes slowly widened.

Then, the corner of his mouth began curling upward.

[The Dumb Host appears to have had an idea.]