Chapter 21
Sokka saw the familiar man sleeping on the streets, it was the cabbage merchant. He seemed to have somehow lost his cabbage cart again.
Getting closer to the man, Sokka smiled gently at the pitiful sight. "Oy, you know, if you stopped being so obsessed with cabbages you would be a successful merchant."
He knew that for a fact as in the future the cabbage merchant's company would be the biggest privately owned company in the world. Normally, Sokka wasn't someone who would care for other people, but this guy had some benefits attached to him. If he could get him to his side, then it would be very beneficial. Especially since he planned to develop the Southern Water Tribe in the future and become the leader of it.
"Who are you?" asked the cabbage merchant, his nose red from the cold night.
"Sokka? Are you coming or not?" The guards called him out, trying to get him to come and drink with them.
"Sorry guys, I have to take care of something, I will be back." He waved them off, already having forgotten about what he was going to do before. Because in front of him, he saw a desperate man... one that he could take advantage of.
-Sokka POV-
The cabbage merchant was quite an important character. He would become a powerhouse in the future. As long as he stopped messing around and trying to have his business be involved with cabbages. Though I wasn't exactly overjoyed while seeing Korra, I knew that Cabbage Corp was a very big and key company to the automotive industry.
"I am Sokka, the son of the chieftain of the Southern Water Tribe," though that sounds impressive I didn't have any power. Political or otherwise with that title. People in the Southern Tribe might respect me for being my father's son, but that was it. They were poor people and didn't have the time to listen to what a snot-nosed brat might say. At least in their eyes it would seem like that.
The cabbage merchant didn't know that and looked at me with stars in his eyes. "So? What do you want from me?" He asked with a suspicious frown. "I have no money, so there is nothing you can steal from me."
I wasn't a thief, but if I was, he still had shoes, clothes, and good organs. Though I wasn't a thief, so I won't steal those. But even the poorest person had something that could be
taken away from them.
"I am not a thief," I took out a couple of earth kingdom coins I had gotten from Kyoshi Island, and gave them to him. "It isn't good to sleep in the streets like this."
The man saw the coins and tiredly got up, and quickly put them in his pocket. He looked at the guard's backs as they walked off to go and drink. "Aren't you going with your friends?"
"No," I shook my head, while I would like to see how Lee's relationship ended. There were more important things right now. "How could I enjoy eating and feasting while people were sleeping on the road?"
The cabbage merchant chuckled. "If you keep thinking of the sadness in the world, then you will never be able to enjoy anything."
"I am just a human, so I can't solve the world's problems. But if I can help someone who seems in need of help in front of my eyes, then I see no problem with helping them," the words that came out of my mouth were bullshit.
I would never risk my life or help someone if it wasn't at least a little beneficial to me. Life wasn't a charity, and I wasn't some saint that would go around helping everyone.
But the cabbage merchant was different. I planned to make myself seem good enough in his eyes. This was something I needed for the deal that we will have later in my life. People liked making deals with honest people more than those that seemed like they would backstab you.
Plus, I wasn't the kind of guy who would stab someone in the back or betray them... maybe...
Now, I don't like stabbing people in the back. But if the situation came where the benefits were overwhelmingly good with doing so, then I would probably do it. Who am I kidding? No, I would definitely do it.
Getting up, I offered the cabbage merchant a hand. "Wanna come and try some Earth Kingdom food? The meal is on me."
He smiled and nodded, taking my hand as I pulled him up. "Well, if it's something unrelated to the cabbages, then I have no idea on what to make of my business."
Suddenly, I got a new quest notification.
[Help the desperate Cabbage Merchant (Chain Quest)]
[The Cabbage Merchant had fallen in hard times. Help him and he will remember this favor in the future. The more you help him, the better the more grateful he will be. The minimum requirement to complete the quest is to help him find shelter for the night.]
[Completion Reward: 1,000 Exp.]
[Increased closeness with the Cabbage Merchant]
[???]
Chain Quest? So it's something that will continue even after I complete this Quest, then I will get another after it.
This was an opportunity to help the Cabbage Merchant accomplish something big, I knew he had the talents, so no matter the investments it was almost 100% certain that he would make it big.
Bumi stood at the peak of one of Omashu's highest buildings. When he saw Aang, he could barely hide his excitement.
But now, he had calmed down and a smirk was apparent on his face. There were a thousand problems he had and a thousand more would be added if he let the outside world influence him.
The Earth Kingdom was losing the war, and quite terribly at that too. It was only a matter of time before Ba Sing Se and Omashu fell. Bumi could see that clearly.
The people needed the Avatar as a symbol to tile behind and a great General to lead the army. Bumi's eyes wandered towards a young man helping a certain cabbage merchant fallen on hard times.
Bumi's smirk turned into a full-blown smile. "Heh, a General. Someone intelligent and cold enough to know when to make the right decision... I have just the man in mind."
Back when they had met, Sokka had asked Bumi's age and the old man's answer had been "Older than most of you" which had shown that he knew Aang's age.
No one else would have caught it, but Bumi could see Sokka's intelligence shine through like a beckon. He had figured it out within an instant.
"What a scarily intelligent young man," muttered Bumi. If Sokka had been on the enemy's side that would be a problem, but now that he was an ally, the old King couldn't help but think of some tests he could put the young man through.
"Kekekekekekeke~" Bumi's cackles rang through the night as he started jumping from building to building, returning to his palace. "Things have just become so interesting."
.
Katara and Aang stood in their prison room that was more like a luxurious hotel and looked around.
"There has got to be a way we can escape out of this," mumbled Aang, speaking his thoughts out loud. Even he could see that King Bumi was crazy and didn't want to stay around and figure out what the crazy old man had planned for them.
"Aang," Katara sighed, a little tired. There was no way to escape the room, they had been searching for hours. "Let's just go to sleep."
She was feeling mostly worn out because of her brother's actions. Sokka had annoyed her a lot with his behavior. He always seemed to go around and do whatever he wanted, without thinking of the consequences.
Sometimes to Katara, it felt like he had become a different person. But she knew that he was still her brother.
Suddenly, the wound of the door opening rang out and Sokka came in with a flushed face and smelling full of alcohol. "Hello everyone~ goodnight~"
Baam!
His face planted into the ground, and the sound of snoring.
Katara clenched her fists and veins popped in her forehead. She wanted to punch her brother so hard that his brain would finally be set straight. But seeing his peaceful sleeping face, she sighed and picked up a blanket, throwing it over his body to help him sleep.
Aang saw this and didn't say anything, he knew that they wouldn't be able to escape and went to sleep in one of the couches. Katara slept on the bed.
The only one awake was Momo, and he kept staring at the unconscious Sokka. The flying lemur tilted his head and made some soft cute noises.
sigh* Suddenly Sokka sighed, and casually got up, staring at the flying lemur in the eyes. There was no look of drunkenness in his eyes, and he wasn't stumbling, showing that his actions before were all an act. "For a weird cat and bat combination, you are quite smart."
Sokka looked at Aang and Katara, using [Observe] to make sure that they were sleeping, and looking through the Map he also saw that no one was spying on them. After seeing that, he pulled out a spear out of his inventory and started practicing. He then took off his shirt that smelled of alcohol.
Fwish!
His spear cut through a dozen of his imaginary enemies and cut through the air like a whip. Hearing the sound, Sokka's swipes got softer so he wouldn't wake up Aang and Katara. Still, each swipe of his spear cut through the air like a surgical knife.
..
When morning came and Katara woke up, she saw that Sokka was washing his face in the sink at the corner of the room.
She raised her hand, ready to waterbend and try to freeze his face for a little to teach him a lesson. That was when Sokka suddenly stumbled and clenched his forehead.
"Ugh," he grunted. "My head is killing me."
She frowned and in the end, stopped her plans and sighed, unable to bring herself to even jokingly hurt her brother.
What she didn't notice was Sokka's smirk, as he had seen her through the mirror and could guess that she was about to do something. So he played at her heartstrings and acted like he was sick.
By the time they went to meet King Bumi again, Sokka was still holding his head and grunting to avoid Katara's judgment. But as soon as they entered the throne room, he straightened his back and looked completely normal.
Katara noticed this and looked at him strangely.
Sokka made a peace sign towards her. "You snooze, you lose, sister."
It was childish, totally childish. But Katara couldn't help herself as she finally caught on to what was happening. But it was too late because they were in the presence of a King and she couldn't do anything now.
"Avatar!" Bumi yelled out loud suddenly, making Aang flinch.
"Y -Yeah..." Aang answered nervously.
"I have a challenge for you and your smart friend here," Bami's smile was so wide that it almost seemed to split his face.
Sokka was surprised, he remembered that only Aang had been tested and challenged by Bumi during the series.
He couldn't help but wonder what obstacles Bumi was going to throw at him.
Chapter 22
Bumi observed Sokka closely and smirked, seeing that the young man didn't show any sign of being surprised. Though Bumi was now used to him not even showing anything that he felt on the outside. This left the old king reassured that if someone tried to scheme against Aang then he had someone who would be able to pull him out of it.
.
Taking Sokka over to a special colosseum-like platform, Bumi smiled as he saw the young man just curiously looking around and seemingly wasn't worried about anything. The old king had to admit it, he was a little impressed by Sokka's fearless demeanor.
'But at the same time, such carelessness could lead to incompetence.' - thought Bumi, clenching his fist and causing the ground below Sokka to crack, making him stumble. Within an instant, a pillar of rock shot out of the walls and towards his head.
With only a slight and noticeable movement Bumi had manipulated the earth to teach the young man that being careless wasn't a good idea, even when the enemy seemed friendly. Unexpectedly, Sokka moved like water, and even though the ground below him shook, his balance didn't and he crouched down dodging the rock pillar.
"Rocks these days seem to fall strangely," Sokka said nonchalantly, smiling at Bumi and walking past the still erect rock pillar. "Don't you think so?"
"Kakakakaka!!" Bumi laughed crazily, he was amused. No, beyond amused. - 'Aang was very lucky to get a comrade like this. Even before I attacked he had sensed the danger. What monstrous instincts.'
What Bumi didn't know was that this was all due to Sokka's [Sense Danger] Skill, which at Level 10 allowed him to sense danger a whole second before it happened. Of course, Sokka wasn't going to tell him that, but he also learned something else.
'He can not tell what I am thinking or feeling by sensing the earth below him.' - contemplated Sokka. Though never directly mentioned in the series he believed the Bumi was like Toph and could sense the earth vibrations with his feet. This ability gave the people who mastered it another ability, to sense when people were lying or not.
That was why Sokka had been only telling half-truths and technical truths every time he talked with Bumi. But he didn't feel confident in this yet and would have to make sure that it also worked on Toph too. He suspected that this was due to [Gamer's Body].
"What are you waiting for? Jump down." Bumi instructed him and pointed towards the middle of the colosseum-like structure below them.
Sokka sighed and jumped down. Though he and Bumi seemed to be alone, he had a sneaking suspicion that there were guards hidden in these walls. Well, it was a sneaking suspicion until he checked the Map. Which showed that yes, they were hiding in the walls.
Fwish!
Sokka jumped down gracefully, and due to his high Agility, he looked like an airbender to the untrained eye. "If you are going to have me fight, can you give me a weapon?"
"No," Bumi denied his request. "Sometimes you will be left stranded in enemy territory without a weapon. Let's see how you handle it."
sigh*
Sokka sighed, and shrugged. In the end, he wasn't going to reveal his inventory here just to prove the old King wrong. "Well, who is my challenger then?"
"Challenger? You mean challengers right?" Said Bumi before he walked off and the earth around the colosseum opened up and men in rags came through. They are armed and some amongst them seemed even like earthbenders.
What Bumi was trying to teach Sokka here was that he needed a better charismatic charm. True, the young man was friendly and nice, just like your favorite waiter. But what Bumi was trying to make here wasn't a waiter, but a General.
Bumi was quite sure that Sokka wouldn't be able to beat so many people, there were almost a hundred of them. So he either had to solve this by sweet-talking or being born, the latter would teach him some humility, while the former would improve his charismatic abilities and test them to their limits.
Unknown to Bumi, Sokka had a whole different plan. Instead of being shocked or scared of this, he was happy.
[One Hundred Man Challenge]
[Defeat a hundred skilled warriors in one battle. Clear Bumi's challenge, failing is a way of cleaning it too.]
[Objectives:
1 - Defeat 100 Men
2 - Make them submit to you. (Time Limit: Before Bumi comes back.)
3 - Turn these men into worthy soldiers (Time Limit: Before Bumi comes back.)]
[Rewards:
For completing Objective (1) - 100,000 Exp
For completing Objective (2) - Random Egg
For completing Objective (3) - Sky Piercer Spear]
Sokka was excited at this and the malicious expression combined with his sharp eyes seemed to freak out the prisoners.
"Hey man, I just came here to get a better meal. But this guy seems scary."
"Yeah, look at that crazy look on his face, you don't fight with people like that. They will bring you to their level and beat you up down there."
"Shut up!" Suddenly a muscular man that was two times the size of a normal human yelled out. He had a bald head and a muscular body, he didn't have any weapons on him, meaning that he was an earthbender. They were given the choice to get a weapon before coming here to fight and mostly earthbenders didn't have a weapon as they didn't need it and would just hinder them. "You guys act like cowards. We are a hundred men! Let's beat this brat up within an inch of his life and go back to eating the feast that we were promised if we beat him."
"Oh! I remember that guy, wasn't he some scary General that committed too many war crimes."
"Yeah his name was Kun, I think."
"With a guy like that on our side then there is no way we are losing."
Sokka on the other hand just stared at them and wondered why no one had charged at him yet. After all, they were a hundred people, but then he realized that unlike in the stories, these prisoners weren't dumb. The first one to charge was bound to get beat up, but after that, everyone else would get the bravery to attack.
Sokka looked at the man with the highest level and could see that it was the man who was monstrously huge. He used [Observe] on the man, now that the skill was at Level 20 it could show quite a bit of information.
[Kun (Lvl 63)]
[An imprisoned ex-General dishonorably discharged for killing and torturing Fire Nation soldiers. He would keep his enemies' heads on pikes to scare them off and would match with the heads on the battlefield. His earthbending is dangerous and styled to kill his opponents.]
Seeing this, Sokka decided that he would be the first opponent he had to try and take out. Because as the fight went along, people like him only became more dangerous and got used to their opponent's speed.
Fwish!
Sokka charged, not even leaving footprints on the ground as he ran and it seemed like he was fleeting off the ground due to how fast he moved. This was how the untrained eye saw him, but Kun, who had been in the midst of war and dodged blasts of fire thrown at him, was on guard against the attack.
"Heh, you are pretty fast for a brat," snorted Kun, kicking on the ground, causing a pillar of earth to rise around Sokka and the momentum pushed him in the air. "I know how to deal with fast cats like you, just put them in the air where they can't move."
He then shot a couple of boulders at Sokka, who was still mid-air. Anyone else would have panicked right now, as Kun's strategy was spot on. But unlike others, Sokka had [Gamer's Mind] and he was as calm as he would be while drinking a cup of tea.
As the boulder was within arm's reach, he shifted his body mid-air and used the rock and its momentum, kicking off it and propelling himself into the crows of other people. They immediately attacked him, but Sokka dodged all of the attacks with only a hair's length away from hitting him.
Hammer, spear, sword, and many other weapons swung at him, but Sokka dodged each of them. Even as boulders started raining down on him from the ceiling.
As he had predicted Kun was being a problem and had found a way to attack him without hitting his comrades.
Seeing this, Sokka grabbed one of the spearmen and used his body as a shield, and took his weapon away. After that, he quickly jumped off to the other side of the room, stabbed his spear in the wall, and dangled where no melee weapons could reach him.
With a spear in hand, the atmosphere around Sokka changed completely and the feeling of danger he radiated increased tenfold. Kun though wasn't intimidated and shot a barrage of rocks at him.
Sokka used all of the rocks to move and used them as platforms. Even while they were midair and in movement Sokka was fast and agile enough to move faster. Within an instant, he was in front of the ex-General, who was his biggest problem here.
Though he noticed another problem here and could see that Kun undoubtedly had a very rich combat experience as anywhere Sokka would use his spear to pierce the man would retaliate and attack at the same time. It would turn into an exchange of hits rather than Sokka attacking him.
But at this time, the General who had been through a hundred battlefields got attacked in a way that he hadn't predicted or ever experienced in the battlefield. Sokka threw the spear up, seemingly abandoning his weapon.
He then softly hit Kun in some positions, but the giant man's body clenched for a split second before his Chi stopped circulating and he fell on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut off.
"H -How?" muttered the man before he entered deep unconsciousness. Sokka saw the boulders heading towards him as there were some more earthbenders in the midst and he had to take care of them too.
The spear that he had thrown in the air had come down and he picked it up with precision.
...
Hours passed and Aang completed his challenges: getting the lunch box key, finding the King's pet, fighting Bumi, and even guessing his name.
Bumi had threatened Aang with Sokka's life, well not directly but insinuated that something bad would happen to their friend if the Avatar didn't finish his challenge quickly.
As they were walking down the hallways towards Sokka, Aang couldn't help but ask. "Did Sokka get to do a challenge too?"
"Yep," King Bumi nodded and looked at Momo, narrowing his eyes. "His challenge is connected to the 87th sutra. Heart and soul look through the eyes."
"There was an 87th?" Aang wondered, what Bumi was speaking of was some monk text and he didn't remember being any sutra above the 20th.
"Oh! We are here," exclaimed Bumi excitedly. Even he couldn't wait to see how Sokka was going to finish his trial.
Katara was behind the old friends and she had a frown. Unlike Aang, she hadn't forgotten just how worried she had been for Sokka. No sister should ever have to wonder if their brother was alive or dead.
Suddenly an earthbender came out of the walls and he had a shocked look and sweat running down his face as if he had seen something straight out of a dream. "My King… something unexpected has happened."
Bumi smiled excitedly and didn't wait for the soldier's report, wanting to see the results himself, Aang followed along and so did Katara.
The soldier sulked and stared at the ground depressingly. "He never listens to what I see. Why am I even working here? My dream was to be a nude artist."
Suddenly he picked himself up and looked around breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that no one had heard that. But a strange sound interrupted him and he looked down, seeing Momo looking at him strangely as if he understood what the man said.
"Please don't tell anyone," the soldier begged.
...
When Bumi arrived at the colosseum arena, he saw something that shocked him. There was Sokka and a hundred men were lined up perfectly with Kun on the lead. They were all on their knees and bowing towards Sokka.
"""HAIL THE GREAT LEADER!!""" they all yelled out in unison. Their hands and knees shook due to how long they had had to hold that bowing position, but no one dared complain because they had seen what Sokka was able to do to 'convince' them.
"I didn't hear you!" Sokka reprimanded them, a scary look dominating his face and the air around him felt colder.
"""HAIL THE GREAT LEADER SOKKA!!!"""
"Kekekekekekeke!!!" Bumi's loud cackles interrupted the whole event and everyone looked at him. Though no man boring down dared to get up, currently they were more afraid of Sokka than their King. "How were you able to make those rough guys docile like that?"
"Well, first I used a firm hand for discipline and then a soothing palm to comfort them," Sokka said with a gentle smile on his face.
One thought went through every man that was bowing down at that moment. 'Soothing hand?! When the hell did you use that!!' - all of them had the same thoughts but didn't dare to voice them.
Bumi laughed even louder and Sokka smiled along with him as he got a new notification.
[Challenge Quest Completed]
[You have completed Objective (1): 100,000 Exp]
[You have completed Objective (2): Random Egg has been deposited in your inventory]
[You have completed Objective (4): The spear, Sky Piercer has been deposited in your inventory]
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have reached Level 30]
[Your Gamer Interface gains a New Function!]
He dismissed all of the notifications for the moment and planned to look at them later.
-Sokka POV-
Bumi and Aang went on one last slide and we set off Omashu with a bag of money and rations. Bumi promised us an army if we ever went to war against the Fire Nation. As we left he gave me some advice which increased my wisdom by one point, it was good advice and how I should become the mind and monster of the group when they need one.
But the advice was nowhere near Iroh's level. That guy would give me a Wisdom point every time we spoke.
As Appa set off and flew into the sky, we departed from Omashu and I gave one last look towards the city. Now it was the time I had been anticipating. Time to check my quest rewards and what I had gotten.
A/N: Chapters in advance in Patreòn
Pa /HolyJoker
(20 chapters in advance)
...
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