Chapter 13 - Awakening

Lucan and his elder brother Linton are currently stuck in sticky situation. Although Lucan was able to successfully save Linton from getting himself killed, there was still the Spike-back Salamander to worry about. Lucan took the sword from Linton’s hand and said, “Quickly brother! You must leave this place and go somewhere safe to wait for me. I’ll keep this beast distracted for now!”

Without hesitation, Linton left the scene while thinking, “I’m sorry little Lucan! I hope I will get to see you once more…” Truthfully, it was a very cowardly act for Linton to leave that place, but he himself witnessed the strength of the monster and he didn’t even dare to waste the life his little brother saved.

“Looks like it’s just you and me.” Lucan held the sword tightly with two hands, although he did not have any past experience in swordsmanship, he was confident that he could distract the monster as he planned to escape. However, Lucan’s leather messenger bag started to show a glow from within it and so, Lucan dashed backwards in order to check it.

The Spike-back Salamander remembered Lucan’s movements from a while ago and as it was an intelligent beast, it decided to save Lucan for later and only eat the prey that it has already crippled.

[Awakened Mode is highly recommended in this situation. The user must drip his blood on the front page of this book in order to have access to most capabilities of the book.] A different voice from what I usually heard came from the book. If the usual voice of the book is like a girl, this time it’s a deep robot voice.

Without hesitation, I used the sword to slit a cut on my hand and blood flowed down to the front page of the book. Then, it glowed even brighter than before and it started to float beside me. The appearance of the book also changed. If the front page was just like a book cover before, now it has blue circle gemstone in the center of the cover.

[Master, thank you for awakening me from my slumber. Do not be afraid, everything will be explained in time. For now, I must help you win this battle.] The voice was directly telling me this inside my head, it was the same as the first voice, but it seems much livelier than before. I was happy because it feels like I’m talking to a real person now. But the happiness faded as the beast looked towards me and I could hear something that I never heard before.

[INAK-TIS-FUUL!] *BOOOM* I could see fire charging towards my direction and I jumped over to the side to avoid the hot flames. [Quickly master! It has used the most of its mana on that single spell, you must attack it now. The weak-spot of the Spike-back Salamander is its tail.] The book nagged in my head. I kept on running and jumping to avoid the fire that kept changing directions in order to hit me.

As I got closer and closer towards the beast, I tightly held my elder brother’s sword and changed the flow of my Mana Boost to my two arms. “Eat this you beast!” I charged towards its tail while it was still spewing out flames from its mouth and I cut down the tail with all the power I could muster up.

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[KROOOAAAR!!!]

The monster howled in agony as I took a step back to make sure that I avoid its counter-attack, but not only did it not attack me, it also stopped spewing out flames. [You have successfully weakened it master. Cut off its head while it’s still stunned.]

I moved without restraint and as I sliced its head off, blood came out splattering from its neck and colored the sword I held red. As I looked at the sword which was drenched in blood, it was already in a bad shape. I didn’t know if it was because of the integrity of the monster’s body or if it was because of the force I used to swing it.

“Wow! I didn’t expect my first fight with a monster to be this easy!” I rejoiced in my victory against one of the things that I feared in this world. [Congratulations master. For now, you should collect the monster core within its chest and take off the spikes from its back.] For the first time, the book actually told me information that I didn’t ask for. If it was like “Google” at first, now it’s like I have a very intelligent secretary.

[Like I said, everything will be explained in time master. Also, now that we have a blood contract, I have access to your thoughts.] The book said as it literally knew what I was thinking. Although it seems uncomfortable, it’s not so bad to have a personal assistant that knows what I’m thinking about all the time.

Following the instructions of the book, I took the monster core from the beast’s chest and plucked out most of the spikes on its back. “Is this all I have to do?” I asked. [Your father is a blacksmith and you’re literally a being that runs on mana. The core will be beneficial to your growth and the spikes are a big asset to any blacksmith. The Spike-back Salamander is rare creature master, value it more.] The book scolded me as if I was its child.

I went to the nearby corpse that the monster feasted on and saw how disfigured the corpse was. It seems that the monster did not eat all of it, all that was left was the person’s head and some of his torso. I saw another corpse, but this time his whole body was split in half. His torso was separated from his legs and it was a very gruesome scene to witness.

To pay my respects, I dug up two graves for them and placed the swords and whatever that is left of their armors to mark their graves. Soon, I left to find my elder brother.

“Little Lucan! You survived!” I saw Linton in a nearby field alongside his fellow companions. They looked like traumatized little children. “Is everyone okay?” I asked, but my elder brother only hugged me tightly while saying, “I’m sorry you had to do it alone!”

“It’s okay Linton. The important thing is I’m here and you’re also safe.” I said to my brother, but it seemed to have made the other soldiers uncomfortable. “Then what about us? What about our scout team? What about our leader?!” That soldier was crying while shouting at me. “Did you only care to come to where we were because of you brother?!” He continued to spout nonsense to my face.

[Master, I think what he’s trying to say is, if a person with your caliber was aware that there was such a beast to where they were headed, why did you not warn them? Or at least came earlier to give them a hand?] The book told me in my head.

“Tell me… Do I have any relations with you people? Do I owe you any favors? Me? A 12-year-old child?” I asked to the crying man. “I came here not to act like a hero. I only came here to ensure the safety of my family.” I turned my back on the man and everyone else turned silent. I started to walk back home after that ordeal.

To be honest, Lucan had a point. He didn’t owe anything to anyone there. So, why would he risk his life for them? Out of sympathy? Compassion? Pity? Sadly, Lucan didn’t care about that. He wanted to mind his own business and he would only want to act if his family is in danger. But unlike Lucan, Linton had a sense of justice and agreed with his companion.

“Linton! You better follow me now or else I’ll force you to follow me later!” I said to my brother as his face were showing signs that he was going to choose his comrade’s side in the argument.

~ End ~