The enemy leader had an uneasy expression. It was clear that he hadn’t expected Michael’s healing Skill, but he couldn’t show weakness in front of his men. With a slightly shaking voice, he shouted.

“Go on! What are you waiting for?”

The men looked at him and at one another as if trying to decipher what was the best course of action, but eventually, they all resumed their walk toward Michael, who was looking at them with a deadpan stare. Suddenly, the five men closest to him started running, dashing toward him with weapons drawn.

Are they supposed to be fast compared to others?

Maybe they had invested their Free Stat Points into Dexterity. It was inconsequential. In Michael’s eyes, they were slower than even himself. There was no need for anything fancy to deal with them. His mere stats already put him on a level far above theirs. Michael cast Mana Blade. He held the sword made of mana and waited for the enemies to finally reach him. The first one stabbed directly at his shoulder joint. Michael furrowed his brow. Given that the orders had been to capture him, he hadn’t expected the enemies to try and deal severe, permanent damage right out of the gate.

He sidestepped the stab and slashed at the enemy’s thigh. The man dropped to the ground with a pained scream. The second and third enemies reached him, but they were dealt with just as easily; quick slashes to the lower body made them unable to stand up. At that point, the fourth and fifth enemies froze. They turned to their leader, clearly shaken up. The man’s expression had become a heavy frown. He yelled.

“Just kill him!”

The entire group’s movements changed. Killing intent filled the air. The two hesitating Warriors dashed toward Michael once more, this time going straight for his throat and heart. Michael felt the light inside of him die slowly. He dodged the attacks and slashed the duo, but the wounds weren’t too deep. Part of him was still hesitating. The duo turned around and stabbed at his head in a flash. Michael felt as if the world were moving in slow motion.

They want to kill me.

He lowered his upper body, avoiding the stabs. This was different from what he was used to. The enemies weren’t animals or monsters, they were people. Yet, they desired to kill him all the same, for no reason other than to prove to Derek that he wasn’t threatening. They had severely injured a couple and left them to die only to use them as bait. His enemies weren’t misunderstood antagonists or kind villains. They were people who were used to killing, perhaps even on Earth. There was no way to know how much pain they had already inflicted since their arrival in the Tutorial Zone. Besides, right now, that didn’t matter.

This was a battle to the death. That was all the information he needed. Michael steeled his conviction.

The moment when the duo recovered from their stabs and were about to attack him again, Michael slashed upward in a flash. The Mana Blade reached their necks… And sent their heads flying through the air.

From behind him, he felt the distinct flow of mana of three Mana Spheres. His Mana Blade turned to nothingness as a Mana Shield was raised. The Spheres crashed against it without even making a dent. Defended within his Shield, Michael looked down at his previously pristine white-and-gold robes. Blood now marred their design. Blood of people he had killed, not because he needed to, but because he had chosen to. It was completely different from killing an animal, yet at the same time very similar. He had expected more ripples in his heart, but he was actually quite calm. He had killed people who tried to kill him. There was nothing more to it. He was the winner and survivor, and they had lost.

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Michael’s gaze gained an edge that it had never had. He turned to the group of enemies, who were now stepping back in fear. The leader looked genuinely distressed. Michael found it funny how a man who had ordered him to be killed could turn into a scared child in the blink of an eye, with only a slight shift in the circumstances. The leader stuttered out a few words.

“B-But I thought you wouldn’t… You didn’t…Y-You-”

He went silent once Michael created two basketball-sized Mana Spheres, one for each hand. The entire group froze. Michael spoke in a serene voice.

“You tried to kill me. I am only retaliating in kind.”

He had felt the bloodthirst from each and every one of them. None had even thought about hesitating to take his life. He would have no mercy for them. The leader yelled.

“Wait! We can work something out!”

“Yes, I’m sure we can.”

The two Mana Spheres went flying through the air. They reached the three Mages that had attacked him in a flash. In an eerie silence, they seared through their necks and heads like a scythe cutting wheat. One Sphere killed the two that were close together, while the other went for the remaining one. The remaining flesh was burned and charred. Their heads had completely disappeared. Boiling blood flowed out of the fatal wounds, falling to the ground in a continuous flow. The three corpses collapsed to the ground like puppets with their strings cut. The entire enemy group took a step back, but didn’t dare to turn away and run. It was the correct decision. Michael’s spells would have been able to reach them before they ran ten meters.

The leader had a fearful smile on his face. He lifted his hands, palms facing up, in a gesture of peace. He was trembling. Michael didn’t let these facts muddle his mind. The man had ordered him killed moments ago. He had no compassion for the man. He spoke.

“Tell me everything you know about Derek and his group.”

He wasn’t even done talking when the leader started nodding repeatedly.

“Yes, yes, sir! Derek is our boss; he created an organization within the Village to capitalize on the Tutorial Zone. He ordered many of us to keep an eye on you, but never to fight you. He wants to become the ‘king’ of this Tutorial and emerge as the strongest one, which is why he recruits whoever he can and crushes whoever he can’t. That’s all I know! Please, don’t kill me!”

Michael narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.

“How do you contact him?”

“We don’t! He’s the one who always contacts us with orders! He uses some weird spell, like a talking, floating mouth!”

He automatically raised his guard. Derek could use the Whisper spell? Or maybe he had a powerful Mage with him who had managed to form a Circle and learn the spell. Either option was worrying. Apart from that, Derek had built a troublesome system. Orders came from above, but there was no way for those lower in the hierarchy to contact the ones who had given them the orders. Simply put, it was a one-way street. He wouldn’t be able to learn anything from these ordinary goons. The leader may have been trying to prove a point to Derek, but it didn’t seem like he was important.

“Why did you attack that couple and leave them here?”

“The guys watching out for you saw you go for the Flag nearby. They deduced that you would come for this one too. Since we had already captured it, we decided to use the injured people as bait.”

“That doesn’t answer my question. I know what you did, but why did you do it?”

The leader blinked with an uneasy expression. He was clearly trying to find the answer that would please Michael the most, but it didn’t exist to begin with.

“…Because it was the most effective way.”

“And what if they died because of their injuries?”

“…”

The man went silent, looking at Michael with a strange expression. It was a silent question, “So what?” It looked as if he couldn’t understand why Michael would ask such a question. The injured couple had never been on his mind. If they died, that was it. There was nothing more to it. Michael felt a pang of hatred.

Now, he was at a crossroads. He had obtained whatever information he could without mentioning his friends and blowing their cover. He had confirmed the enemies’ willingness to seriously injure and kill people completely unrelated to him. There was no way to know how much pain they had caused.

The question now was simple: should he kill them all or let them go since they had surrendered?