Zero woke up inside a healing pod. He immediately knew where he was and quickly opened the pod and removed the water-breathing mask. He stepped out, stretching his arms and legs, realizing that not only was his body back to full capacity but it also felt stronger. He noticed a pile of fresh clothing on the floor next to the pod. He quickly fitted on the clothes and walked away from the healing chamber. He stared down the hallway, remembering that was the way he went through the last time, so he turned around and went the other way.
He walked out finding a city filled with people who all looked similar to him in terms of hair, but some of them had horns and scales on different parts of their bodies. This was a shock to him, but he could deal with the new location later because right now he had to go fight monsters to fight since he needed to get monster essences for his sword. Then it hit him he had completely forgotten that he never had his sword with him.
"Damnit, how could I forget about my sword? Damn it, I'm gonna need to ask Haru if he can help," Zero sighed, looking around until his eyes fell on someone wearing armor. He walked up to the man. "Hey, do you know how I can leave this place?" He asked. The man stared at him, thinking 'Does this guy have amnesia or something?' But he answered Zero's question. "Um, just go down that road; it should lead you straight to the gate," the man pointed to his right.
Zero thanked the man and began running down the road. He jumped on the buildings since there were people on the road. He swiftly arrived at the gate, and guards let him out surprisingly.
He ran, leaving the kingdom walls behind and entering the massive forest with gigantic trees. He needed to talk to Haru, so he quickly climbed up one of the bigger trees and sat on one of the big branches. He entered a meditation pose and relaxed his body. Soon enough, he fell asleep and opened his eyes to see Haru leaning forward on his flying chair with a frown etched on his face.
"Let me guess, you lost the sword?" Haru spoke up first, waving his hands around. "Yeah, I lost the sword," Zero responded, scratching the back of his head while looking away. Haru glared at him for a few seconds before letting out a sigh. "Look, the sword is only a few dozen meters away from you, so just head west from your current location."
"West?" Zero inquired, confused about what he meant. "Just keep going in the same direction you were heading when you hopped onto the tree," Haru quickly said, remembering Zero didn't know what a compass was.
Zero nodded and left, leaving Haru alone. Or it would seem he was until a woman appeared behind him, which startled him.
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Zero opened his eyes and immediately started heading forward as he needed to get his sword back quickly so he could start getting it out of its dormant state. 'I wonder what'll happen to it when I unlock it. Oh wait I think that's it right there.' He landed right in front of his Greatsword which was stabbed into the ground
He pulled it out but he didn't get to enjoy the small moment as he heard a tree get knocked down behind him. He turned to see a troll brandishing a massive club of stone. This made him smile since now he had a way of testing out his new strength.
Before the troll could react he instantly appeared before it and sliced off its arm easily. Zero's smile faded as he was disappointed at how weak it was but he saw something which surprised him. The troll's arm was slowly healing, it entered a defensive stance but he chopped off its head quickly. He noticed its arm stopped regenerating and its head didn't regrow either.
If he ate this thing's heart it should help boost his regeneration too so he used his sword to cut out its heart and quickly scarfed it down. He didn't immediately feel a difference but he would need to get hurt to do that. So he needed to find somewhere with a lot more monsters to kill.
He left its body there to decompose since he didn't have a way to take it with him without it being a hindrance. He traveled not too far across the forest and quickly found a group of Trolls except these felt stronger than the one he killed before. Jumping off the tree he was on he landed in front of them with a small smile which to them was not a friendly one since they could smell the blood of their own off of him.
There were 7 Trolls present, and all but one rushed at him instantly in a rage. The first was decapitated, and the second was able to raise their club in time to block but was split in two along with their club. Zero dropped his guard which was quickly taken advantage of by the remaining 4 who leaped into the air slamming all 4 clubs directly onto Zero causing a shockwave that shattered the ground beneath them. They thought they had won but were simultaneously decapitated in an instant.
He turned toward the final Troll who compared to the others was nearly 5 times stronger. Zero grinned as watched the Troll take out a massive blade made of crude steel. It held it with both hands keeping its eyes on Zero. A few seconds passed clearly it wasn't going to make a move first so Zero made the first move, he stomped the ground propelling himself forward and slamming his greatsword against the troll's crude blade.
He pushed back the troll before sidestepping and thrusting his sword at its lower abdomen. The troll quickly managed to smash its thick blade onto his greatsword but Zero still holding it leaped forward kicking it across the face disarming and knocking the troll across the field. He picked up its massive blade with one hand and threw it with so much strength that it blew its arm entirely off along with its shoulder.
The troll fell to its knees as Zero walked up to it. "Thank you," He said before decapitating it. Its body fell over as its head rolled away he cut out all of the troll hearts and quickly ate them. He wiped the Troll's blood from his mouth standing over the corpse. Since he had killed 8 monsters he was getting closer to his goal but remembered a problem "Just 492 more... That's a lot more than I thought." As he began cutting out the hearts of the Trolls he let out a sigh "I'm gonna need to find a lot more"
After eating all the hearts he left the bodies there and began walking in the direction they had come from. He walked through the forest keeping up his guard in case another group of Trolls came out. It took nearly an entire hour of searching for clues but Zero managed to find a set of footprints that looked like they belonged to Trolls. The tracks went far but he followed them eventually reaching a camp filled with Trolls. He hopped up a tree making sure to stay at a safe distance to not be spotted immediately.
Zero scanned the camp making a rough estimation of how many Trolls of which there were around 80. He couldn't accurately sense it but there were at least 1 to 2 'I could use them as good practice for training my abilities plus, Haru did say I need more battle experience!' He thought as he leaped onto a tall tree with a good view of the camp. His lips curved into a smirk as he saw a large group of Trolls huddled up it appeared as if they were discussing something.
He gripped his greatsword jumped high into the sky above the camp and used Blast step launching himself downward. Dozens of fire bolts and wind blasts soared toward him with incredible speed. He stopped his descent and swung using the flat part of his greatsword to send a shockwave to counter the attacks prompting an explosion mid-air. Using Blast step, Zero shot down and swung his greatsword 12 times unleashing a barrage of massive slashes that tore apart all the Trolls below.
Zero landed with an impact that kicked up a haze of dust, which he quickly swiped away with a swing of his greatsword. The bodies of nearly 40 Trolls were laid out around him as he stood up. The remaining Trolls brandished crude iron clubs, swords, and spears as they all roared in a blinding rage, rushing toward Zero.
He started two-handing his greatsword, spreading out his legs, and raising the sword over his shoulder. "Storm's Edge!" He announced, coating his blade with red lightning and flames that extended the blade from 5 feet in length to 10. He then swung five times, releasing a multitude of crescent slashes that sliced through most of the Trolls.
There were only 12 left, so Zero used Blast step to close the distance instantly and slashed one of them in half. Two Trolls that were close to him swung their swords, but he quickly thrust with his sword, impaling one of them through the chest, and rushed forward, stabbing 5 more with his sword. He swung his sword at them, launching the Trolls off his blade and slamming their bodies onto the others, causing an opening that allowed him to rapidly perform a multitude of long-range slashes, chopping up the last remaining Trolls.
Due to repeatedly using so much mana, he was a bit exhausted even though the trolls weren't strong. Zero exhaled, feeling relieved at how many kills for his sword he had gained. "I think that's 412 now! Honestly, if I find a few more of these villages I should be able to get this done in 2 or 3 days," he exclaimed, looking around and noticing that he destroyed most of the camp but saw some of the buildings weren't all destroyed since he didn't aim for them. This gave him a thought, "I wonder if I could find anything in these houses?"
Before he could enact that idea, he suddenly felt two powerful energies getting closer to his location. He turned around and saw two Trolls. The first one had a thin yet muscular body, wearing a masked steel helm that covered his face but had small holes for the mouth and eyes. The first also wore light armor comprised of interlocking steel links with a pair of long and imposing dual swords attached to their hips that glistened with a frosty sheen.
The second one had a larger muscular body, wearing a similar helmet to the first, along with thick steel armor that covered most of his body but had brown leather on the spots that weren't covered allowing him to still be flexible. His weapon, on the other hand, was a pair of gauntlets that were wrapped in chains.
The Trolls and Zero stood mere meters away from each other, staring each other down. "Yo, Dragonoid, do ya have any idea of what you've just done?" The thinner Troll questioned with his arms crossed. Zero simply stared at the Troll, "I killed all the trolls here!" he nonchalantly said with a blank face.
A bead of sweat formed on their forehead as they looked at him. "Hey, Dakumaru, there were like 80 trolls in this place, weren't there? How are we gonna explain this to the boss?" The large Troll whispered. Dakumaru raised an eyebrow at his brother, "Kairos, what do you mean, how are we gonna explain this to the boss? We're going to need to kill this guy, or we might get our heads chopped off!" Dakumaru whispered back with a scowl.
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Kairos let out a sigh as he frowned. "C'mon, we both know the Trolls that live in these forests are mostly horrible. Why are we going to get rid of someone who could help us?" he asked, hoping to find a way to settle this confrontation without someone dying. Zero watched as the two bickered for a while. Until he got tired of it and spoke up, "Hey!" Once he caught their attention, he continued, "Look, I can tell you two are different from the others since those didn't talk. So what do you guys want exactly?"
Dakumaru glared at Zero and responded, "Well, we were looking for some of the Troll camps that have been kidnapping, killing, and doing unsavory things to dragonoids that wander far away from their kingdom!" Zero looked a bit confused since he had seen a few dragonoids and these guys didn't look like them at all, so he asked, "OK, but you guys are Trolls, right? Why are you hunting these down?"
This time Kairos answered, "Well, our village leader sent us to help kidnap a group of dragonoids. We were planning on saving them, but it seems you already wiped out all the Trolls, so we don't really have to do anything else until we receive new orders! So I would like to thank you for your help, dear friend!" Kairos walked up to Zero raising his hand for a handshake. Zero looked down at his hand for a moment and then looked up at his face, "What are you doing?"
"Um, I'm offering a handshake! It's a way of showing respect." Zero grabbed his hand and shook it. "Ok, then, but who's the short guy?" He asked, pointing at Dakumaru, who immediately took out his short swords. "What the heck did you just call me!" Dakumaru growled, Zero's response to Dakumaru's growl was a simple, deadpan look.
Kairos pulled Dakumaru back. "Dakumaru, stop! We can't just attack people over words, control yourself!" Kairos said as he held back the enraged Dakumaru, who just glared at Zero. "Tsk! Fine, I'm leaving!" He grumbled, breaking out of Kairos's grip and dashed away. Kairos waved goodbye to Zero.
"Hm... they're weird. Now that they're gone, though, I can collect these hearts and check what they have in these buildings." Zero said, turning around to collect what he could from the camp. He quickly cut out all of the hearts he could, only getting around 13 since most of them were destroyed by his assault before. He ate the hearts quickly and felt a slight change but not by much. Next, he searched the entire camp for anything that could be useful.
He spent nearly 40 minutes searching through the houses and removing the rubble, finding a couple of valuable things. He found many crude iron swords, axes, and hammers. There were a few more items like a pouch of gold coins, a crimson cloak, steel-tipped arrows, two rolls of bandages, a couple of shattered shields, rusty torture implements, iron chains, a serrated iron battleaxe, a piece of a map, and a weird-looking book.
He wore the crimson cloak and tied the pouch to his hip. He picked up the map piece, examining it for a while before placing it in the sack. He then tried opening the book but found out that it wouldn't open; he wondered how he couldn't open what appeared to be a simple book, but he would have to ask Haru what it was. He placed it into the sack along with the steel-tipped arrows, iron chains, and the rolls of bandages. He couldn't find anything useful so he quickly tied the sack around his torso with a rope he found and walked out of the camp.
After leaving the camp, it took Zero 2 hours of walking through the massive forest. He found another camp but, sadly, he wiped out the 60 Trolls that resided there pretty easily. He stood among the rubble since he accidentally destroyed most of the camp luckily they didn't have anyone valuable so it wasn't a loss.
He walked for what felt like hours until he found another one except this one was much bigger than the last one. He could sense a few decently powerful Trolls and one that he felt was just as strong as him probably stronger. A smile crept on his face as he decided he was going to start with a big attack. He leaped into the air, kicking the air to rise higher, allowing him a complete view of the massive camp.
For the kills to count toward the sword, he would have to kill them using his sword. "Storm's Edge!" He said, wrapping his sword in red lightning and flames like before except this time. He began charging more mana into the sword, causing it to begin growing until it was nearly 30 feet. He then used Compact, compressing the mana that covered the sword.
The Trolls below had turned their attention to see the flash of light above the camp. Zero roared as he swung his greatsword with all his strength, unleashing a massive lightning slash, resulting in a massive dome-like explosion that completely obliterated the entire camp. He fell landing near the middle of the now obliterated and burning camp, noticing that there was a building remaining. The barrier that surrounded it was seemingly damaged heavily so the caster had to be decently powerful.
He stood a few dozen feet away from the building, thinking about entering, but before he could take another step, a Troll walked out. The Troll wore nothing but a pair of thick pants with a pelt tied around their waist. It held a massive iron greatsword which rested on its shoulder as it walked down the stairs of the building.
They stood a few meters apart, staying silent for a few seconds. Zero crouched down and dashed forward, swinging his sword and unleashing a slash of wind pressure that split the Troll in half. "Hm, thought he'd be stronger. There should be a few more, though." He said, walking away to grab a big rock. After finding one, he brought it over and placed it down to sit down.
He sat there for a few minutes until a Troll walked out wearing a cloak with a golden necklace and a staff. A squad of four Trolls walked out behind him, one of them had a book in hand while the others held a Warhammer, a great axe, and a Spear. Zero got off his rock, preparing to attack until he heard the Troll that held the staff suddenly shout, "Filthy Dragonoid! Why have you chosen to attack our village?!"
Zero stared at the troll who appeared to be their leader. "Hm, didn't think you guys could speak, but I don't really know much about monsters, to be honest. But I'm attacking you because my sword requires the essences of monsters, and you guys fit that requirement!" He nonchalantly explained, raising his greatsword and resting it on top of his shoulder. "You insolent brat! You kill him immediately!!" The Troll leader ordered as he pointed at the one with the Warhammer.
The Troll stepped up and spoke, "You killed a lot of our men so for that, you'll pay!" He dashed forward to strike at Zero but was parried and impaled on Zero's greatsword. "Are all of you this weak? If so, this is going to be boring." Before he could pull out his sword, a spear suddenly pierced through the troll's head, catching him off guard. It nearly took out his eye but he barely dodged at the last second, only receiving a small cut below his eye which also chipped off some of the dragon scales that covered the left side of his face.
Zero jumped back to gain some distance, "You.. cut me?" He questioned, touching the minor wound with his fingers. The Troll who had attacked him was slowly walking toward him as it spoke, "Yes, are you shocked Dragonoid? But don't worry about that cut, as there's more coming!" The troll stomped the ground, closing the distance and firing a volley of spear thrusts, forcing Zero to parry each of them.
Zero continued to parry the strikes, receiving small cuts here and there on his body. He swung, cutting the Troll's chest open before jumping up and charging lightning mana through his sword. He swung his sword, unleashing a lightning slash. The Troll tried to dodge but was split in half before it could move.
As Zero landed back onto the ground, he clenched his hands, enveloping his body with a crimson lightning cloak with flames imbued into it. Before Zero could speak, he tilted his head, dodging a bolt of lightning that was fired at him by the Troll who held a book. "You first!" he said, infusing lightning mana into his greatsword and quickly closing the distance. He thrust his sword forward, piercing the Troll right through the torso, leaving a gaping hole before it could use another spell.
He turned his head to see the Troll that wielded a Warhammer already swinging at him. He brought up his Greatsword blocking its heavy strike causing the ground beneath his feet to crater slightly.
He swung his greatsword, knocking it away, and prepared to attack it but was forced to jump away as a building-sized fireball struck the spot he was previously in. He turned, noticing that the Troll who held the staff was about to spew out another fireball from its mouth except instead of a single one it fired dozens of smaller ones. He poured lightning mana onto his arm and threw a straight punch, launching a blast of lightning-infused air pressure. His attack dispersed all the fireballs but before it could hit the staff-wielding Troll, the one with the Warhammer managed to get in front of it to block the attack.
The Troll tried to push back the blast but was quickly overwhelmed by it consuming both the Warhammer and Staff Troll together leaving them severely damaged. He said, "Hm, thought that would've killed y'all, well, it's good it didn't since I need to use the sword!" Zero quickly chopped off both Troll's heads. "Well, that was fun while it lasted! Huh?" he heard something behind him and turned around to see that the barrier around the large building was broken.
'I could search that place but do I really need to?' He thought as he didn't sense anything in the building so he honestly didn't want to waste his time and decided he would just leave. He looked back and saw so many deceased Troll bodies that it was a little hard for him to count but he counted all of them. He left the village in complete ruins having gained a total of 505 kills from this alone.
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Zero traveled through the forest, heading toward where he believed the city was. Since he already had all the kills he required, he was going to meditate to speak to Haru, but there was a problem. As he walked through the forest, he swore he felt a pressure being directed at him. He turned around, but as his head turned, a dagger flying at near-light speeds destroyed his right eye. "Argh!" he roared in pain, keeling over and holding onto his sword to not fall over. He moved his hand up, feeling that there was a dagger in his right eye socket. He tried to pull on it but tensed in pain as he tried.
"My eye!" he said, groaning in pain. He reached for the dagger again but was instantly bombarded by a gust of wind followed by hundreds of daggers. He picked up his sword and tried to dodge them but was stabbed by the majority of them. He used Blast step to gain some distance but was hit by a green blur that knocked him far away.
Zero hopped through the forest, clashing with the green blur but continuously getting knocked through the forest until they arrived at an opening over a hill. He stopped his momentum by stabbing his greatsword into the ground. His body was riddled with dagger cuts, blood, and of course, the dagger that was stabbed in his eye still since he didn't have the time to remove it yet.
"Damnit, show yourself!" he bellowed, struggling to catch his breath. He saw a familiar masked steel helm-wearing Troll walk out of the trees. "You?" Zero asked as the Troll responded, "Yes, it's me. Or did you forget my name already?!" Zero stared at him with his one eye for a moment before he said, "I forgot, who are you?"
"H-How did you forget my name already? It's only been like a couple of hours?!" Dakumaru questioned, annoyed at Zero. Zero would've said a joke if not for the fact that Dakumaru was the reason for his current visual impairment. Dakumaru clicked his tongue and said, "Tsk! Well, it won't matter anymore since you won't live any longer either way!"
Zero was about to ask, but before he could, he suddenly felt his muscles stiffen, and a chill settled deep into his bones as a cold freeze tightened its grip over his body. He coughed blood before kneeling as he felt the right side of his face being frozen as well. He tried to look up, but suddenly, the ground he was on was sliced off the hill he was on, causing him to fall, watching as Dakumaru looked down on him.
Zero's vision soon faded to black as he fell, and passed out. The deep crevice below consumed him and his greatsword.
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We see a black-haired boy with scales that cover the left side of his face, wearing a black kimono-styled jacket and hakama pants, strolling through the forest. Right now, he was heading toward his favorite training spot, which was a clearing next to a massive lake that he would go fishing in sometimes.
He walked over toward a flat rock that was in front of the lake. He sat down facing away from the lake and began meditating. He started manipulating his mana, wrapping it around his body in a cloak. He kept his focus until suddenly he heard a massive splash behind him. "Huh?" He immediately got up and ran over to the lake. He looked over the water, squinting his eyes, barely managing to see something deep in the water. So, he dipped his head in, spotting a red-haired boy in the water.
He jumped into the water, quickly swimming down and grabbing the red-haired boy. He swam back up, allowing him to catch his breath. He placed the red-haired boy onto the ground beside him and quickly noticed the plethora of injuries and the dagger literally stabbed into the boy's eye. "Holy crap, what the heck happened to this guy?!" He shouted, shocked and disturbed.
He let out a sigh. "Man, I'm gonna need to ask Sensei about this!"