“The underground, huh?”
With him already guessing from his surroundings and the big guy’s answering, it became clear that our protagonist was now not in the forest but below the surface, he was walking minutes ago. But what he didn’t get was why they were living here.
“But why are you here, living underground? And why is there no living being up on the surface?”
Mrit asked nonchalantly, piquing the interest of the big guy who was standing in front of him. With a smirk, he then looked at Mrit.
“Look at this punk questioning on the brink of his life.”
Others following the big guy laughed loudly and looked at Mrit with pity, but Mrit never minded them as he wanted his question to be answered.
For days, he saw no one, be it animal or human in the forest, but now he is finally standing in front of humans for the first time after getting thrown into this forest. So he genuinely asked the question to get his answer.
The big guy who got interested in Mrit decided to play with Mrit.
“You are one hell of a person, surviving till now while living up there with that hell of a monster. Since you are going to die here by me, I must make your wish come true.”
“You want to know why we are here and why no one is up there, right?”
Nodding, Mrit looked into the eye of the person. The big guy looking at the guts and perseverance of Mrit then told Mrit about the forest about them from the start.
“Since you are here, you must be dumped here, either by the empire or the kingdom. You know, this forest is the dump yard of the ones who these powerful nations, especially the two I mentioned, deems unworthy or useless. In easy words, it is a dump yard for trash like you.”
“They throw people like you here who disobey them or act against them, leaving those unlucky ones on their own.”
Without the guy telling him, Mrit already somewhat got the idea that the forest is some kind of place where the goddess must have dropped the one who rebelled against her but knowing that other people practiced this and people who were ruthlessly abandoned here pissed Mrit very much.
The big guy continued. “As for why we are here, it was because those kingdom bastards hired us to watch over the ones they dropped here before killing them.”
“But you know, it isn’t that fun watching an already dead pest trying to fight for his last breath, so we, out of boredom started to transport the animals here to the rich merchants to, you know, earn some pocket money, Hahahaha!!”
The big guy laughed loudly while telling his so-called acts. Moving on-
“You are someone we didn’t know about, but I guess we will get the order soon. As for why we are underground, it is because of a rather nasty monster roaming above.”
“I guess you are pretty lucky to have not encountered it or you would not be standing here. That bastard killed most of our men the first time we encountered it. Even the kingdom and the empire didn’t want to mess with that guy.”
“So with him roaming there freely, our business and job got affected heavily. SO now we are here, doing our ‘business’ somehow as we know that that monster will do our job clearing you trash.”
He then finally shut his mouth full of emptying glorifying facts about him and then-
“So there you go. I have answered all your questions, so-”
He, at a ridiculous speed, then pointed the edge of his huge sword near the Mrit’s neck.
“-it is time to clear the trash. Well, I am thankful to you for coming here in one piece on your own so that we can show your body as the proof to those bastards.”
Mrit, surprised by the speed of the big guy in front of him, realized that the enemy in front of him was not someone to underestimate.
Pushing the sword with his fingers away from his neck, he looked deep into the eyes of the guy in front of him, asking another question to him.
“You think you can kill me?”
Suddenly, a dark aura broke out from his left hand and Mrit then caught the blade with his bare hands. The big guy surprised, tried to pull the sword back, but-
“Answer me. Can you kill me?”
The look in Mrit’s eyes sent a shiver down his spine. A gaze filled with eternal darkness and the void is looking down at him.
Alerted, he retreated to the back with his sword while taking a stance. His men, who saw their leader backing away, got alerted as they also fully unsheathed their weapons and took a stance.
“I can guess as to why you were dumped here. You are not useless at all. Instead, you are something that shouldn’t be allowed to exist. Hey you all, attack him with all your might. DO not hold back. Do you hear me!! DO NOT HOLD BACK!!”
“Yeess!!!”
And so, all of them jumped upon Mrit together, pointing their weapons at him with a gaze full of menace and murderous intent.
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Mrit, standing there, looked at the herd coming at him, intending to kill him with a still gaze.
“You say I shouldn’t exist. You have no idea how I wished to not exist.”
From the ring, he took out the sword as the rise in stats gave a surge of power inside of him. His muscle swelled up and the aura of sun, emitting from the stigma, then coiled around the sword.
Taking a stance, he glared at every single one of the enemies in front of him thoroughly, closed his eyes, and then took a deep breath.
“Forgive me. Blame your leader for killing you all.”
As the sentence finished, he then slashed the enemies coming at him with great might. The wave of energy generated by the slash then pushed all the enemies jumping at him. Even the leader of theirs, sensing the energy, tried to block it with his sword.
Even though he succeeded in blocking, the energy caused some internal injuries as he kneeled while coughing up blood.
On the other hand, blood spurted from the bodies of the ones who were pushed away as their bodies lost the life within them, dropping to the ground and making a pool of blood.
[The souls of the sinners shall be absorbed for the sin of standing against death.]
From the stigma upon Mrit’s left hand, dark, murky energy spewed out as it encroached and covered the bodies of the dead, sucking up their souls. The soul, screaming in agony, slowly got sucked away and the energy then retreated into the stigma.
“OYEE!! How dare you do that without my permission? Release them back!!”
Mrit, who saw this, got angry and called to the system, demanding to release the souls.
[The owner has faced this in the past. The souls are covered in extremely negative karma. So their karma will be used for further growth of the owner.]
“I have told you that I will not use you or the power of death. Now release them back, NOW!!”
[The owner must realize that you will not be using the souls, but rather their karma. So the owner should not focus on trivial souls.]
And so, the system of death retreated without saying anything else.
“Damn it!! This system!! Hey, release them back this instant.”
Although he tried to call the system out again, nothing but silence answered him back.
“So be it. I shall see you mak-”
“How dare of you to get distracted while fighting against me? I did a grave sin in underestimating you. Now I must compensate the fallen men of mine by killing you with no mercy.”
With a fit of rage, the big guy then charged at Mrit like a bull, slashing at him madly. His swings, containing his rage, slowly reached Mrit as Mrit continued to dodge his attacks by a small margin.
‘This fucking bull!! I underestimated him. He is equal to that draugr in the temple.’
Although the draugr itself surrendered, if he were to continue fighting, Mrit would have gotten the body of death on the spot.
Somehow backing away, Mrit tried to use the aura of the sun. The aura coiling around the sword flared up as Mrit swung the sword with greater strength, sending the wave of energy at the big guy, but the guy resisted as the energy barely grazed him now.
“The aura didn’t work. He must be using some magic now. Shit!!”
Not getting time to tackle the guy, he straight got beaten by the flat side of the sword as he got sent flying towards a wall, crashing heavily.
“I praise you for the power you showed. But looking at your state, I am more powerful than you, so do not think you can overpower me like those men of mine.”
“Cough… Cough!”
Coughing up a handful of blood, Mrit looked at the guy approaching him with a menacing aura.
Although he got the surge of stats by equipping the sword, he is still far behind both in levels and stats compared to the big guy in front of him. Trying to balance the power here using just armor and weapon is meaningless.
‘I have to use the sword of the sun then, but-’
The last time using the sword of sun skill, his stamina almost dropped to zero. The toll of using the skill makes him unable to move for a certain amount of time.
‘I am not sure if that skill can even kill this bastard. Shit!!’
Not having a choice as the guy brandishing his sword slowly walked towards him, Mrit stood and tried to activate the skill, just when he heard a familiar voice.
“Topa?”
Stood upon the place where Mrit first appeared here, Totopa looked at Mrit and the big guy while tilting his head.
“T-Totopa? How the hell are you here? Get away from here!!”
Not wanting to involve a single life in his fights again, Mrit tried to persuade Totopa to return back, but before he could do that, he heard a loud scream.
“AHHHHH!! H-How the hell this m-monster appeared here?”
The big guy who was confidently approaching Mrit seconds ago is now sweating profusely. Shivering, he looked at the little creature in front of him with fright. He, who a moment ago was walking at Mrit with a dreadful look, is now shivering like crazy.
Totopa, on the other hand, now looked at the big guy with a gaze that never suited his cute looks. Slowly, with his small legs, he walked towards the guy, while the guy stepped back.
“S-Stay away from me!! GET AWAY!!”
In fright, he swung his sword crazily, but without a hitch, Totopa dodged every single strike and slowly got near him.
Slowly opening his tiny mouth, a small ball of fire appeared in his mouth. The guy, knowing what was about to happen, tried to attack him, but from behind, Mrit slashed his back, wounding his back heavily.
“Y-You f-fucking…”
“Now, Totopa!!”
“N-NOOOOO!!!”
And with his permission, Totopa deployed the attack. A beam at an instant blasted through the torso of the guy from the mouth of Totopa, shaking the entire place. The beam broke through the ceiling also, leaving a vast hole behind the surface.
“W-What the…”
Mrit, looking at the devastation and the lower body of the big guy he was fighting in front of him, now left shocked. The beam had so much force behind it that he would be disintegrated if he were to face it.
Looking at the little devastator in front of him burping and coming towards him made him scared and relieved at the same time.
“So you were the reason there was no one in the jungle.”
Totopa, like an innocent child, rubbed his face against Mrit’s leg, not minding the beating heart of his own master in fright.
“This little… Hah!! Alright, Alright. I forgive you for hiding your powers, so now get off me for a moment”
Standing up and calming his beating heart, Mrit looked at the destruction caused by his little friend here. He now got convinced that from now he must be careful while handling this little fluff of destruction.
Now, looking at the dead bodies in front of him, Mrit’s eye shined.
“Now, let’s loot these fuckers.”
“Topaa!”
***
After resting for a while, Mrit then scourged through the pockets of the dead and found whatever thing he can. From all 20 members, Mrit got a total of 20 storage rings filled with some money and simple weapons.
“Well, better than nothing, I guess, but-”
Looking at the now torso vanished big guy, he regretted.
“That guy must have some good fortune with him.”
The sword along with whatever he might have carried with him, disintegrated by the devastating beam, leaving just useless legs behind.
Leaving it behind, Mrit then tried to look around the room, trying to find something.
Totopa, who was mindlessly roaming the room, suddenly stopped.
“Topa? Topa!!”
“What now, Totopa?”
Mrit, who heard Totopa, reached to him quickly, fearing this little guy doing something again.
“What happened? Did you find something?”
“Topa! Topa!”
Totopa looked at Mrit and continuously yelled while pointing at the wall.
Looking at where Totopa was pointing, he found a little bump on the wall.
“What is this?”
Upon pressing it, the wall shook a little as a hidden door appeared, opening by itself.
“W-Woah…”
The inside of the room was something that shocked both Mrit and Totopa as they stared blankly at what was inside the room.
***