Zeigel absentmindedly munched on his lunch as he pondered Reizo's offer. His train of thought was interrupted when he noticed Saliza flicking bits of food off her plate.
"Something wrong with the food?" He asked.
"No offence Zeigel but it tastes awful."
It is? Oh shit, it is. How did I not realize how gross the food tasted in my mouth.
"Yup, wow, I really messed up this dish." He admitted as he forced the disgusting taste down his throat.
"By the way, what did Reizo talk to you about earlier?" Saliza asked.
"He told me there's a way to level up faster."
"Wait what?" Saliza exclaimed as she shot up from her seat. "How?"
"He hasn't told me yet but he said it's a method that can't be frequently used, and that it's also illegal."
"No fair! I wanna level up quickly too!" She complained with a pout.
"Hey I'm three levels below you, I need it more!"
"Just rely on me and I'll fight for you!"
"You can't fight for me if Reizo suddenly decides to make me fight by myself! Besides, I'm not even sure if Reizo is lying about the method or not."
"What do you mean?" Saliza asked.
"The fact that he wouldn't explain the method makes it seem pretty shady. He did mention that it's illegal so it's possible that he's trying to test my morality or something."
"And if he isn't lying, then what do you think he'll do to help you level up? Oh, maybe he'll make you fight a three star monster."
"There's no way he'll do that. He's helping me level up so that I'll be strong enough to fight three star monsters. Besides, nothing about it is illegal."
Zeigel got up from his seat and dumped his half eaten meal into the trash bin.
I really gotta work on my cooking.
"If this method isn't too much of a hassle, I'll teach it to you."
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Zeigel arrived at the gate where Reizo was waiting for him.
"Let's go." said Reizo as he signalled for the guard to open the gate.
Once they were deep inside the forest, Zeigel asked, "So how am I gonna level up?"
"You'll find out in a moment."
This still seems pretty shady. I really hope I won't regret this.
They moved deeper into the forest, eventually finding a large destroyed cage with decimated cirakens surrounding it.
"Is this something I should be concerned about?" Zeigel asked, but received no response. He turned around and felt his heart drop. Reizo was gone, leaving him to fend for himself.
Whatever was inside the cage might still be lurking around, and if it's responsible for tearing apart all these cirakens, then it's safe to say that its a monster with at least three stars.
Shit! Is Reizo trying to punish me for not not having morality?
With trembling hands, Zeigel drew his sword and frantically scanned the area for any signs of monsters while listening closely for any footsteps.
Questions flooded his mind of what his next move should be. Run? Hide? Wait for Reizo? Call for help? What's the right move?
Maybe Reizo will come back. Maybe he's retrieving something that'll help me level up. No, I can't hope for best right now. I need to prepare for the worst-case scenario or I'm dead!
His paranoid eyes darted everywhere, searching for anything hostile that may come. From his left? His right? Above? Below? Danger was potentially lurking around every corner, and no one was there to protect him, leaving him with an overwhelming sense of dread.
A deep snarl from coming from his right made his blood run cold. He shifted himself towards the sound with his shaky sword aimed at it. There was nothing there, but the snarl confirmed that he wasn't alone.
After a few seconds, he gave into fear and fled in the opposite direction.
Forget this! I'm not dying for a couple of levels!
While running, he turned his head around to ensure that nothing was chasing after him. He couldn't see or hear anything behind him, but he knew that the snarl had to have come from a monster.
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There's a chance that an invisible monster was after him, and to confirm his suspicion, Zeigel created and threw a lump of dirt behind him. It splattered against an invisible beast that was chasing after him.
"OH SHIT! REIZO! HELP ME! PLEASE! I BEG YOU!" He desperately cried out.
Invisible claws slashed him from behind, tearing through his armour like paper and leaving long gashes on his back.
With gritted teeth, Zeigel kept moving forward, pushing his legs to their limit. He prayed that the speed he was running at would be enough to escape from the invisible beast, but all hope was lost when something pierced through his leg, causing him to fall over.
The invisible beast slowly revealed itself as it crept up to Zeigel. The beast had the appearance of a scaly tiger three times the size of a regular one. It has a long tail tipped with a sharp stinger which it used to pierce Zeigel's leg.
With a wry smile, the beast dragged the struggling Zeigel closer to it. It slowly widened its jaws that neared his body as if to give Zeigel a sense of impending doom, but before it could sink its teeth into him, Zeigel released a bright flash of lightning from his back, blinding the beast.
He quickly sliced off the stinger that pierced his leg and got back up on his feet, only to be smacked away by the blinded beast and sent crashing into a tree. With whatever strength he had left, Zeigel crawled into a nearby bush and began healing himself. He felt his body going numb. A chill ran down his spine when he realized that the beast has injected paralyzing venom into him with its stinger.
He didn't know how long it'll take for the venom to fully paralyze him, so he prioritized healing his leg to ensure that he could at least move.
If that monster can attack while its invisible, then why didn't it kill me when I wasn't even aware of it? It even took its time trying to kill me. Is it even interested in eating me?
Zeigel recalled the decimated cirakens around the cage. If that beast needed food, there was plenty lying around the cage.
That scaly fuck is hunting me for the fun of it! It's not hunting me for food, it's not trying to get rid of a threat, it's just trying to kill me for fun! That bastard creature is making me suffer just for a fucking laugh!
Once his leg was healed, Zeigel got up from the bush and scanned the area for the beast, but it was nowhere to be seen. With his body growing numb, Zeigel knew he had to be on the offensive.
"YOU WANNA HAVE FUN? COME ON THEN! LET'S GO!" He roared, hoping that it would reveal his location to the beast.
The best chance he had at finding the beast was to exploit its sadistic nature, so he ran in one straight direction while filling his fists with sand. He knew that the beast found his fear and panic amusing. It wanted to watch him suffer, so it had to be nearby, and if he kept on running, the beast would follow from behind.
He released a bright flash of lightning from his back, and just as he predicted, the beast was right behind him. It violently screeched as it was blinded once again.
"HAVING FUN YET?" Zeigel shouted as he threw the clumps of sand at the beast. The sand stuck onto its invisible skin, revealing its body to Zeigel.
Zeigel aimed his left palm at the beast and blasted it with fireballs, praying with each blast that it would bring down the cruel bastard.
As all the fireballs were coming from the same direction, the beast knew where Zeigel was. It lunged forward and swiped its claws, tearing through Zeigel's left arm and causing him to cry out in agony.
As its vision slowly returned, the beast could now see where Zeigel was and grabbed ahold of his leg with its jaws before furiously slamming him against a tree.
Using a spell, Zeigel released electricity from the leg stuck in its jaws to electrocute it. It enraged the beast, causing it to fully clamp its jaws down on Zeigel's leg. It swung its head and flung Zeigel away, ripping his body away from his leg that was still in the beast's jaws.
As he laid down on the ground bleeding out while his body is close to going fully numb, he became content with just letting everything end. The throbbing in his head, the searing pain at his back, the excruciating agony of having his leg torn off, if it would put his suffering to an end then he would gladly welcome the sweet release of death.
Before he became fully paralyzed by the venom, Zeigel lifted his head up to see the beast undoing its invisibility as it triumphantly approached him with a wry smile. It was a smile that reminded him that the beast was causing him all this torment for fun. It was a smile that made his blood boil.
Fucking asshole, I did nothing to you! Why couldn't you have just left me alone! What did I even do to deserve this!
Maybe it's the venom effecting him, but his body felt like it was burning up from the inside. It was as if flames ignited within his body.
Did this happen because Reizo felt that I wasn't a good enough vanguard? I didn't even want to become one anyway! If it wasn't for that god damned portal and the assholes who came here before me, this wouldn't be happening to me right now! I just wanted a peaceful life!
The numbness in his body was dissipating. He didn't know how and he didn't care. Right now, the only thing that mattered to him was tearing that mocking smile off the sadistic creature's face, even if it costed him an arm or another leg or even his life. He wouldn't be satisfied unless the creature was sent off to hell, and if he had to drag it there himself then so be it.
The beast was surprised when blue and orange flames suddenly flared from Zeigel's right eye, but regardless of what his eye does, he was still just a heavily wounded human it could easily kill with a swipe of its claws. It may as well have a little more fun with this toy before it breaks.
Zeigel created a stick to support his body as he stood on one leg with his sword pointed at the beast.
As the beast came charging towards him, Zeigel pulled his right arm back and thrusted his sword forward. The beast swerved to his right to dodge his blade and chomped down on his right arm, causing Zeigel to cry out in rage.
The beast crushed his arm in its jaws with just enough strength to hold him there without tearing off his arm so that it could watch him despair in his final moments.
With his right arm still trapped within its jaws, Zeigel pulled himself over the beast's head and created roots around his body that dug into its head.
GO AHEAD, TAKE MY ARM! IN RETURN I'LL TAKE YOUR FACE!
Zeigel coated his teeth in metal and with sharp iron fangs, he began tearing apart the beast's head like a rabid animal.
The beast violently thrashed its head in an attempt to shake Zeigel off of it, but the roots around Zeigel secured him in place. Its cries of agony made the blood and flesh that filled Zeigel's mouth taste sweeter than honey.
He continued ripping apart its head until a hard white dome could be seen within the bloody mess the beast now had for a head. He had found what he was looking for, the skull that contained the brain that made the bastard creature hunt him for fun.
"IS THIS THE GOD DAMNED BRAIN THAT TOLD YOU TO FUCK WITH ME!"
Zeigel buried his face into the bloody mess as he cracked through the skull with his metallic fangs and tore out chunks of its brain. Even with the beast dead, Zeigel continued biting away at it like a rabid animal. Even when his vision blurred from blood loss, Zeigel kept biting with whatever strength he had left, only stopping when he finally lost consciousness.