After Audrey and I woke up, we ate something, we were about to leave for thr outskirts of the city to train when a guard came in saying there was a group of persons coming in our direction, it was good news, they must have information about the exterior and we now have more space with all the makeshift houses we made, we waited for them to arrive, a lot of people were trepidating from excitment, there was potentially someone they knew in this other group, while waiting, I summoned my familiar, I didn't do it earlier because he must look evil blah blah blah but with the death of the Elite kobold, people respect me more so I summoned my lesser Byakhee, abd indeed it looked like a bird, if we didn't count the bat-like wings and the six legs which, by the way, were not the sames, the two first legs were bird-line, the two middle ones were dog-like and the last two were frog-like oh did I mention the fact that his beak wad turned 45° to the left, if this is some lesser abomination, I don't want to imagine the bigger ones, my mind couldn't stand it.

After a good hour, the group arrived, they were better-looking than our group, each person was equipped with weapons and armor, makes me think that I will have to get better armor because this shoulder pad is not very good in durability and it's not worth the repair. but now that I think about it, I could probably make an armor out of bones with my control of life energy, heck I could even do an armor with my bones, by injecting life energy in it, I could thicken it or even make it grow outside with spikes or something like wolverine claws, it would look cool, I will have to try that later on.

Anyways after the group arrived they wanted to buy food so Ted (the burly shopkeeper) sold them for a hefty price, he looks like a goblin, rubbing his hands like that hmmm no with his height it would be a hobgoblin...Stay focused John, A man who looked to be the leader of their group wanted to talk to our leader, now that I think about we don't really have a leader, there was the guard captain but he got killed by the Spiderwolf Broodmother and now nobody wants to be the guard captain, wait... why is everyone pointing their fingers at me? I'm not the leader, I don't even know the name of anyone besides Ted, which is not even is a real name! Aaand now the coming near me, great, A good day indeed.

"Are you the leader?"He asked me like it seemed illogical to him, I know my Charisma stat is only 11 but it's not a reason "Yes, it seems this task has been given to me."

"I don't think you are qualified to be the leader, I sense evilness when I look at you...and what this on your shoulder, I sense evil coming from him as well" Oh great a holier than thou-type, they are SO easy to handle "My name is John, I'm fine thanks for asking and what is your name?"

"Ah you are right, excuse me for being unpolite, my name is Peter and I'm a Paladin of the goddess of life." Wow, that's not even funny, how slim were the probabilities for this to happen?

"Like I said before, I sense evilness in your heart, you must have strayed from the right path, I challenge you to a duel, should I win, I will be the leader of this place."

"Oh.ok. And what happens if I win?"

"Hmmpf, you have no chance to win but in the extremely improbable case it happens, I will owe you a favor" It just HAD to be some pompous brat who thinks he is above anyone else because he is a paladin, I'm sure this guy has a party exclusively composed of girls who love him or are religious zealots.

You have been challenged to a duel, do you accept the challenge: Y/N?

When in a duel, you will lose when you are reduced to one hp, you will be regenerated to full life after the duel. No experience will be gained but you can level up your skills.

I accepted it's not like I will lose anything should I be defeated since I'm not the leader in the first place. And here comes the harem, five girls came out of the crowd,  there were two warriors, a rogue, a healer and a magician, they all looked the same, green (yes fucking green) hairs and eyes, they must be sisters and, I don't know if it's because of the goddess of Life or something but it's a bit creepy, imagine the twins in shining but five of them, urghh. "You can use your party, in the case an evildoer like you has friends."

"No thanks, I'm more than enough to beat you and your harem." Besides, I don't want to take the risk of her being hurt."A HAREM! YOU DARE CALL THESE HOLY MAIDENS MY HAREM!" I did not listen more of his toxic speech before the countdown began 3...2...1... and the duel started.

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I activated Aura of Decaying hope but I did not unsheath my sword, I preferred to have one more hand for magic I then invoked two mage hands and I shot 4 mana bolts at the healer, it costs 120 mana but the damage is just astounding, she just finished recovering from the sudden pain so she couldn't dodge my bolts and died instantly "Samantha!! You scoundrel, I WILL KILL YOU!" It's pretty funny how the challenged me to a combat without knowing my capacities.

Harem Warrior#2  lunged at me. I dodged her attack and cast a double life drain, she got to her knees due to the pain and the sudden weakness, I thin now is the time to test my idea about bones, I concentrated life energy in my hand to thicken and enlarge my nails, I bleed a little but it's nothing compared to the pain when I cast Doom Bolt, the cost is apparently 25 mana (converted to life force) per hand, it's pretty smal but I guess it wiwll cost a lot more with bigger ameliorations. With my new claws, I slashed her jugular and made a Sparta kick in her face, she fell on the ground but did not get up. It's funny how the rogue kept trying to assassinate me, she used stealth to disappear but every time she entered my aura radius she took damage thus the stealth skill deactivated.

The harem warrior #1 was busy dealing with my familiar, this thing is a lot more dangerous than it looks like, he is pretty fast and he has very sharp teeth. I then decided to kill the rogue but how? I mean this duel is pretty boring, the paladin is on the defensive and I can potentially one-shot anyone, I know, I will try new things, maybe if I modify my body enough I can gain a skill related to this, hmm no not now, I will be even more "evil" if I look like a werewolf or something, so new spells it is. First, let's see what happen when I send a wave of negative energy onto someone, I gathered mana and converted it to negative energy, I then threw it to the rogue but she managed to dodge it, too bad I had already a mage hand on the neck of everyone (literally, these shits are incorporeal, only I or someone who can detect mana can see them) I gathered energy and this time she couldn't dodge it so what does it do? Ah, she is coughing blood right? Yep, must be this way 'cause I cast it in her neck, she also seems very slow, is it because of my spell? I think it is, a good spell indeed.

Ah, there is foam coming out of her mouth, I guess the spell was a bit too effective at point-blank range I think I must- Ouch, it seems that the paladin decided to attack, I will kill him last so, for now, I will "just" cripple him, now let's see what happen when someone is overcharged with life energy,  magicians don't have a lot of hp so it will be easy. I transferred 300 hp to her leaving me only with 16hp, I suppose she didn't spend points in the constitution so it's 300% of her max hp and apparently, when you are overcharged in life energy, you explode (not before screaming in pain due to your flesh ripping herself), good to know, ah, the paladin is crying, I think my "good guy" facade is gone, the spectators screaming is a good hint. I finished the paladin by throwing a Doom Bolt in his face.

I was not this cruel before, I mean, I was not a saint either but finding joy in inflicting pain? It's a bit too much, maybe the class and skill can passively change your thinking but it's a bit fast, fleshwarper must be a pretty evil class. With the paladin dead it's the end of the duel and indeed, the Harem party is back to life and I gained two new skill

You have gained the following:

Curse

tier I spell, you curse the opponent by sending a wave of negative energy towards them, will cause a debuff in Strength, Dexterity or Constitution (random), the debuff can be increased if the target is hit with more negative energy.    Current max debuff: 30% (before debuff resistance)

Alter self

tier II spell, you can change minor aspects of your body, you can currently create: claws, horns, and teeth. As the skill level up, there will be more options (like changing the shape of the body) and less pain will be felt. This spell has a maximum level of 10.

The harem party was looking bad, the magician was in fetal position, crying, the System may bring you back at the end of the duel but they will be traumatized for a good time. "Are you satisfied now, paladin?" I did not remember his name so I called him like that. "Yes, John, we will go now;" Ah, you can't leave this soon, paladin."Not so fast, you remember our agreement, right?" "Ah yes excuse me, what do you want, you can't have their virginities, they must remain pure." What. He thought that I was some kind of cliché bad guy or something? "Nah I will pass on that, do you have scrolls or something related to magic instead?"

"We have a heal scroll but you must be a cleric to learn it but, now that I think about it, we have a map of a dungeon, you may find something worthwhile yourself in it." Yes, that will do, thanks, Peter." I finally remembered his name. He fiddled with his status for some time and after that, I received a package of data, apparently, you can digitalize maps and they will appear when you open your status, it's quite useful. The dungeon is located under a church, 2 miles to the east. I think I will go in a few days, I need to prepare myself for the travel and level up, the dungeon is housing level 15 monsters so nobody ever cleared it before. The Harem party and the group of survivors then left and I decided that the next thing to do is train Alter Self and find new spells, after eating of course.