One of the men clutched Levi’s arm, his fingers white knuckled. He inclined his head, hissing, “We should wait for the others. Reinforcements. He might be Karma deprived, but there’s something off about him. He’s high leveled, but he shouldn’t have been able to cave in Kalden’s chest like that. Kalden had a high constitution stat.”
A muscle in Levi’s jaw ticked as he dislodged the man’s grip. “You’re wasting time.”
The man gave up on being quiet and burst out, “He could have a stealth class that hides his true level!”
Levi snorted. “If he did, [Identify] wouldn’t tell us that he’s over level 100. That doesn’t make any sense. Besides, I’m not waiting for the others. We’d have to split the bounty even more!”
Logan took this all in with a feeling of disbelief. For them to do that right in front of him, they had to be way too overconfident—or stupid.
Cracking his neck, Logan gave them a savage grin. He’d had enough. He was on a time limit here; somewhere in this complex, he’d find Lara and the kids. After all his worry and everything he’d done to find her and save her, having the last barrier be a bunch of thugs who only wanted to kill for profit, who didn’t care about who’d they’d enslaved… it was enough.
Logan had never thought he’d be a guy that would contemplate completing a quest to kill fifty people; he wasn’t a murderer; hell, the System had given him a quest to save five billion people! Logan liked to think of himself as a savior, a good guy. Good guys weren’t mass murderers. But there was a famous saying. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
[Quest Progress: 2/50 kills]
[47 minutes remaining.]
If he failed to complete the quest, he’d make it almost impossible to save Lara and the kids, but he’d also be letting slavers go free, free to find others, trick them and enslave them. Not to mention that in addition to enslaving other people, they were capturing Ernie’s brethren and boiling them to death.
Logan would do what was necessary.
Do what was needed.
Besides, it wasn’t his fault that these idiots couldn’t see what was right in front of them. His science experiment was over, and it was just a matter of killing the hell out of some shit. Logan was going to let go, use the tripling effect of his True Grit Rings to tear through these fuckers like paper.
“Ernie, would you like to time me? I need to cut them down in five minutes flat to stay on schedule.”
Ernie cackled. “Fleshy human Logan is bloodthirsty! Yes yes yes! I’ll time you,” he said, leaning over Logan’s shoulder. “But to do so, I need a better view!”
“Ernie—”
“Pah!” Ernie jumped onto the railing next to the corridor, clinging to it with his tentacles, the horns on top of his head jumping up and down. He’d deployed his mirroring effect, so he blended in with the stone railing, but that didn’t mean it was foolproof.
“If you tell me that I’m not a match for these stinky humans, I’m going to be mad at you again.” Then again, he did have a point. Although they were higher leveled than Ernie, unless Logan got in serious trouble, Ernie would be fine. They wouldn’t have time to look for an octopus while their attention was elsewhere.
“Plus,” said Ernie, preening and glancing towards the elevator. “This way I can keep an eye on Shoot! My mental timer is about to commence! Five minutes! No more, no less! I’ll countdown each minute.”
Logan looked at him askance. Ernie was so excited he was puffed up like a bird, red blooming on his face and ruining his mirror effect.
“Start the countdown.”
Ernie cackled and began counting down from five. “Go!”
Envisioning himself barreling into them again like a bowling ball, Logan launched himself forward in a flying leap, using his Pink Sock to give him added momentum. Laughing, Logan flipped in the air and then slashed with his sword at the nearest asshole, going directly for his face.
The man let out a shout of alarm, his brown eyes wide. Raising his dagger, he screamed as Logan’s sword clashed with it, sparks and blue light flying. The dagger was high quality, but unlike Logan’s, which could cut through most metal and rock, it wasn’t System crafted. Just sharp. That meant that although the man stopped a direct slash that would have taken off his head, his dagger was no match—clanging and cracking, the tip cleaving and going flying into the wall.
But although he’d stopped his decapitation, he couldn’t save his hand. He’d broken Logan’s momentum, but his sword still managed to cleave the dagger and then cut through his hand, his two fingers and thumb severing in a spray of blood.
Unlike the others, this man seemed made of sterner stuff. He gave himself a second to glance at his severed fingers before rage swept over him, his mouth in a snarl, his teeth bared. “Fuck you, asshole!”
His eyes flashed blue before the remains of his broken daggers rose in the air, hovering as if they were held up by invisible strings. Raising the metal so the sharp edges pointed towards Logan’s face, he screamed as he did something with his other intact hand, gesturing like a magician as he directed the pieces to fly at Logan like a shooting arrow.
Telekinesis.
Back at Jack’s cabin, the news had shown a clip of a lady who’d managed to fly things in the air. This fucker had the same ability.
Huh, if the others also had versatile skills, he could see how they might be overconfident.
However, there was one problem.
Watching the dagger pieces flying towards his face was like watching a toddler push a toy train over a table. Logan’s perception was high enough that he could see the hovering metal before it got too close. Not to mention that his high agility meant that he could move to the side. Like dodging a bullet mid-air.
Damn.
Stepping to the side, the dagger kept flying at speed, but it slammed into the wall instead of Logan.
“Four minutes!” shouted Ernie in excitement.
Logan came to a stuttering stop and shot Ernie a look. “What kind of timer are you using, there, buddy?” There was no way that had been a minute.
Ernie bobbed his head and flexed his tentacles around the railing like a barnacle. “It’s a minute, for I say it is!” His look turned sly. “Besides, you’re going too slowly. Think of it as motivation!”
Logan huffed, but then he turned back to his opponent. The man was cursing in frustration and franticly looking for something else to use as a weapon, while the others, led by Levi, inched closer, their eyes wary, their weapons ready. Logan had just enough time to see a gun discharging before he jumped to the side, but rather than moving away, he went towards, slashing the telekinesis man with his ten-inch-long talons on his way past.
Ding!
[You have defeated Billie Moore! Triple experience granted for defeating a member of your own species!]
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Another spray of blood spattered over his armour as he powered past and slashed his sword with his other hand. He felt his chest plate crack as four bullets sprayed him, but [Idiot’s Paradox] was so high that he felt no pain, only a slight discomfort. Sealing the cracks by deploying [Mimicry Armour], Logan growled as he slashed his sword, going for the nearest man holding a gun.
He was a man with short, greasy hair, his face covered in an unkempt black beard. Although most of the people he’d come across in the complex looked well fed, this one had hallowed cheeks like a skeleton, and he was pale. Way too pale.
Beyond the gun, he must have something else up his sleeve. Logan hated to say it, but his pallor reminded him of Ernie.
Logan scanned him with [Idiot’s Inspect]:
[Flynn Neilson: Level 87. A human being.]
[Highest Stat: Intelligence/Wisdom. Characteristics: Commander of dreams. Hidden name: Hypnos.]
What the hell was that supposed to mean? Shit, these fuckers weren’t as stupid as he thought; with skills like telekinesis and whatever this skeleton had, he could see them overpowering everything around them. Once they ganged up together.
But the problem was that they might have overpowered everyone else, but they’d never met Logan.
Logan slashed his sword at Flynn, but one of the others jumped in front of him, holding up a large metal plate and deflecting his hit. A shield. Logan’s sword had damaged it, a deep score down the middle, but it was still intact.
The person holding the shield was a woman with sharp cheekbones and a red birthmark that covered half her face. She was young, barely in her twenties, with a piercing through one eyebrow. “Attack from behind while Flynn goes to work!” she screamed.
Goes to work? Hell no.
But whatever the man was doing must have been Karma related. As he slashed with his sword again, Logan’s arm suddenly felt heavy, his limbs weighted down with iron. He felt sluggish and tired, as if he’d just had a massive food coma crash. Which was nuts, considering that his adrenaline was surging like a freight train.
“Three minutes!” shouted Ernie. “You’re moving too slow, Logan! You must look behind you as well as in front!”
Three minutes? The hell.
But that’s all the warning Logan had before he felt as if his back had been hit by a boulder. Fuck’s sake! Someone was firing a shotgun, the bullets carving out scoops of his armour, shredding it and forcing sandstone to pile at his feet.
He was starting to get really pissed off.
Whatever Flynn was doing had to be a mental attack, as if he were forcing Logan to believe that his limbs were weighed down by an anchor. He was tired. Sluggish.
It was a skill that would need a high constitution stat to counter, but the problem was that Logan’s lowest stat was constitution at a measly 46 versus a strength attribute of 348. The discrepancy was ridiculous, but he’d never bothered to prioritize the skill, not after he’d received [Regenerate]. It worked just as well as a high constitution stat. At least it did physically. Against people like the Silverdagger Clan, he’d come out on top.
But until now, Logan had never had to deal with anything that would impact his constitution mentally.
More than likely, it would work the same in reverse. With a high enough constitution attribute, skills like [Life Fabricator] might become ineffectual.
Logan needed to kill Flynn before this got any worse.
The rage that had dimmed after he’d turned muscular Brad into a pile of mush returned as if he’d just lit his emotions with a match. He was on a time limit; he’d made a game of this with Ernie and although Ernie was applying his own logic to minutes and making them into speed, Ernie minutes, Logan had assumed this would be easy. Instead, he was having to deal with a fucker who wanted to put him to sleep. Even worse, he didn’t have the luxury to figure this out. A clock was ticking, and he’d barely touched the surface of this quest.
There were a couple of options here. Eventually, he’d struggle through this sluggish feeling and overpower the asshole, but it would take time. Right now, he felt as if he were fighting with a monkey on his back.
If he didn’t want to take that much time, he could assign his free attributes to his constitution stat, and he might upgrade it enough so the man’s skill would no longer have any impact. He might. He might not.
But Logan was saving those attributes so he could get his Karma pool high enough so he could unlock [Liche Devourer]. He was close. He’d hate for all this effort to be wasted.
He could ask Ernie to take care of the problem, but who’s to say that Ernie’s constitution was high enough? Logan could be needlessly exposing him to danger.
But he had another solution.
Hissing underneath his breath, Logan blinked and willed out the Cursed Rope, barely giving it a second to take in the world before directing all his mental will at it, communicating his urgency and his rage. Rope, that skinny asshole behind the woman. The one behind the shield. Kill him.
Too much put away, too much put away. The rope will feed.
Logan had just a second to blink uncomprehendingly at the thing before it inflated and…
Holy fuck.
The rope leveled as he leveled, and Logan had just gone through another milestone. But instead of increasing in size, this time, its fibre look had transformed. The rope no longer had rough fibres. Instead, it was covered in gleaming scales, scales that looked a vibrant dark blue. They were diamond sharp, reptilian; alive.
And that wasn’t all. The divots on the rope’s face had transformed once again, and now, it had eyes. Black, dark eyes that looked bottomless and ancient.
That, together with the blue electricity that crackled over its body, made it look truly frightening.
“Ooh!” said Ernie in awe. Then he spluttered, “That’s cheating, Logan!”
That was rich coming from Ernie.
The others were panicking now that they’d gotten sight of the Cursed Rope. They tried to shelter their faces, ducking away as it zoomed around them, but it had only one purpose. Darting over the shield sheltering Flynn, it crackled through the air as it slammed into his face, wrapping its long, scale covered body around the man’s neck.
Logan was worried that the acid effect would be less now that the rope’s fibres were covered in scales, but if anything, they seemed worse. As soon as the scales touched the man, his skin sizzled like the rope was a 400-degree frying pan, eating through his muscles and tendons.
He let out a blood-curdling, horrible sounding shriek at the same time that Logan felt energy surge through his body, his tiredness disappearing.
Ding!
[You have defeated Flynn Neilson! Triple experience granted for defeating a member of your own species!]
[You have leveled up!]
Damn. Already a level up notice? No wonder XP harvesters like the Man in Black were leveling up so quickly. It was the triple experience at work.
“Two!” shouted Ernie.
Meanwhile, the others looked at the remains of Flynn and the Cursed Rope who had doubled in size after sucking in his blood, glanced at Logan, and then as one, turned on a dime and tried to run and retreat.
“Oh no you don’t, assholes!”
Now that he was no longer feeling the mental effects of Flynn’s skill, Logan’s adrenaline surged, and he burst after them like his feet were on fire. Slashing his sword, he severed a tendon, sliced off another person’s arm with his talons, then grabbed another by the back of his head. Grabbing a fistful of hair, he twisted, breaking his neck.
Although they were high leveled, they didn’t seem to have the same skills as the others, their physical attributes their only advantage.
Ding!
[You have defeated Kendrick Relite! Triple experience granted for defeating a member of your own species!]
[You have defeated Ella Barbier! Triple experience granted for defeating a member of your own species!]
[…]
[…]
[You have leveled up!]
Logan came to a stop and surveyed the carnage around him. He’d cut them all down. All of them.
All of them except for Levi.
“You,” said Logan, grabbing him by the arm and twisting. The man screamed as something inside of his arm snapped. Logan disregarded it and slammed him against the stone wall, the back of his head making a sick smack.
Dazed, he stared at Logan, his face pale and his eyes wide, his chest going up and down as if he were having a panic attack. “I didn’t know! I didn’t know! Holy crap, I didn’t know!”
“Didn’t know?” Logan ground out. It was taking everything he had to hold back his strength. Rage was rushing through him, making a vein on the side of his neck bulge, his nostrils flaring, a pounding in his ears. He was that close to accidently crushing him to death.
“I didn’t know that you’re a demon! Of fuck, don’t kill me, please don’t kill me!”
“You were trying to kill me. I warned you, but you wanted your precious bounty. You have no one to blame but yourself.”
“No! I—”
“But I might be willing to negotiate.”
Levi paused and took in a desperate breath. “Anything! Anything!”
“Where are you holding the prisoners?” Logan clenched his fist and one of his talons inadvertently pierced Levi’s shoulder.
He gasped in pain “I can show you! Just let me—”
Logan let his talons dig deeper. “No, don’t show me. Tell me,” Logan spat. “Which floor?” He didn’t want to spend a second more in this jerk’s company than he had to.
When that didn’t result in anything but more gasping, Logan willed his sword inside of his spatial collar and then grabbed Levi by the hair with his other hand, digging in with his talons. Now, he was stabbing him in the back of the scalp and pinning him by the shoulder with his other hand.
“Which. Floor.”
“Shit! Okay, okay! They’re on the ninth floor, but you’ll never find—”
Just like that, Logan had had enough. Holding onto the top of his head and twisting, Logan broke Levi’s neck and let his body slump to the floor.
Ding!
[You have defeated Levi Allard! Triple experience granted for defeating a member of your own species!]
“Time’s up!” Ernie chirped.