SSS Awakening: I Can Create Skills By Will-Chapter 58: Threads Between Footsteps

The group spread out and began collecting.

Monster cores, scraps of armor, traces of mana crystals embedded in the walls. It was slow, methodical work. Arthur joined in, his movements efficient but unremarkable. All the while, his senses stayed sharp.

He watched paths. Counted people. Noted who wandered too far and who stayed clustered.

He waited.

Minutes passed.

And finally, opportunity stirred.

At the edge of the chamber, movement.

Two goblins emerged cautiously from a side passage, green skin mottled, eyes darting. They didn’t rush in blindly. They paused, watched, whispered to each other in low, guttural sounds.

Kael reacted immediately. "Contact. Two goblins. E rank. Front left."

The group shifted into formation smoothly. Kael gave short, clear commands, and the explorers responded without panic.

But Arthur stayed back.

He didn’t draw his weapon. He didn’t move forward. His eyes stayed on the battlefield, but his mind was already stepping elsewhere.

This wasn’t his fight.

Not yet.

And as the goblins advanced cautiously, Arthur’s intent settled, quiet and patient, waiting for the right moment to slip away.

He knew he didn’t have much time, and the goblins in front of the group were not a real threat, but they were enough of a distraction, enough noise and movement to pull every eye forward. That was all he needed.

Steel rang out as the explorers surged, blades flashing, spells cracking through the air. The goblins screeched and lunged, but they were overwhelmed almost instantly. Someone laughed. Someone shouted. The fight ended before it could even feel like one.

But Arthur was already gone.

The moment the first blow landed, he shifted his weight and stepped back, his intent folding inward. Intent Step carried him sideways, slipping him out of the edge of their vision, just far enough to blend into shadow and broken stone.

He didn’t stop.

Before his feet fully touched the ground, he vanished again.

This time he went forward.

Not rushing, not panicking, but moving with purpose, skipping through space in short, controlled jumps, each one timed with the echoes of combat behind him. Every shout covered his movement. Every clash of metal erased his presence.

When he landed, the noise faded.

Too quiet.

Arthur straightened slowly, his eyes moving, and that was when he saw them.

Two goblins crouched near a collapsed pillar, arguing in low snarls over a scrap of armor. They froze when Arthur appeared out of thin air a few steps away.

For a fraction of a second, all three of them just stared.

The goblins’ eyes widened, their grips tightening on crude blades.

Arthur tilted his head slightly. "Didn’t mean to interrupt."

And the moment passed.

Their shock snapped into raw instinct, and they lunged, screeching as they moved. No hesitation. No fear. Just violence.

Arthur smiled.

"This’ll do for training."

The first goblin charged low, blade swinging toward his legs. Arthur shifted his stance and let Intent Weave bloom between them. It wasn’t visible in the way fire or ice was, but the air thickened, like invisible threads tightening all at once.

The goblin’s momentum stuttered.

Its leap fell short, feet dragging as if it had hit deep water, and Arthur stepped aside easily, the blade passing through empty space.

"Too fast for your own good," Arthur muttered.

The second goblin came in from the side, jumping higher, trying to bring its weight down on him. Arthur didn’t retreat. He adjusted the weave instead, widening it just a little, and the goblin hit the field midair.

The effect was immediate.

Its body jerked, balance snapping, and it crashed down hard, rolling across the stone with a wet thud. Arthur watched closely, eyes sharp, mind working.

So that’s how it feels when they pass through it.

But he didn’t strike yet.

The goblins scrambled up, snarling, circling him now. They tried to coordinate, one stepping left as the other shifted right, but the weave didn’t care about their intent. Their movements lost rhythm, timing slipping, attacks coming half a beat too late.

Arthur moved between them, clean and unhurried.

He dodged a swing, then another, his dagger flashing only when he needed to redirect a blade or tap a wrist. Each movement was precise, almost lazy, but his focus never wavered.

He wasn’t fighting to kill.

He was studying.

"Your reach is decent," he said to one goblin as it overextended and stumbled through the weave again. "But you commit too much."

The goblin hissed and lunged, slower this time, its muscles straining under the invisible resistance. Arthur stepped in close and drove his shoulder into its chest, sending it staggering back.

The weave tightened for a heartbeat.

The goblin cried out as its body twisted awkwardly, bones and joints protesting under the strain. Arthur felt it through his intent, a subtle feedback that told him the secondary effect of the skill was working.

Good.

The second goblin tried to capitalize, charging straight at him, but Arthur was already moving. Intent Step flickered, carrying him a short distance back, and as the goblin passed through the field again, Arthur struck.

Execution Intent flared.

His dagger slid in cleanly, just under the rib, and the goblin dropped with a sharp gasp, blood splattering the stone.

Arthur didn’t look away.

He watched how the body fell, how the weave reacted, how the strain lingered even after the target stopped moving.

The last goblin hesitated.

It took a step back, then another, eyes darting, finally understanding that this human was not prey.

Arthur let the weave loosen slightly, just enough to bait it.

"Smart," he said softly. "Too late, though."

The goblin turned to run.

Arthur stepped forward and layered his skills without thinking, the transitions smoother now. Intent Weave tightened, slowing the escape, and Manifest Intent surged, sending a burst of force that knocked the goblin off its feet.

It skidded across the ground, screeching.

Arthur was on it in an instant.

Steel flashed. Thk. Thk.

The sound was dull, final.

As the goblin went still.