'Now's the time,' Melvin thought after witnessing the dense crowd in front of the building talking amongst themselves. Pulling his hood even lower, he left Firrol behind and blended with the crowd. His right hand clutching into his dagger, he stealthily advanced in the leader's direction. If the man was really the Ghoul or not, this was something Melvin no longer cared about.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and that was exactly what happened. Everything went as smoothly as possible until he was but a few paces away from the leader's back, and that was when one of his subordinates noticed something peculiar and made a cry, "What are you doing?" Registering his comment, all of the others turned to look back, the leader included.
Suddenly, Melvin found himself encircled by the previous dense crowd that he was using for cover, and all of them watched him intently. His steps halted, and his mind froze.
However, just as abruptly as it froze, his mind sprung up into action. Three seemingly unrelated thoughts appeared one after the other as he stood there under the crowd's suspicious gaze.
He remembered the strength of the men the Ghoul had first sent to threaten him, and judging by their strength he could more or less make a simple assessment of their boss's strength as well.
The fact that he had encountered several strong people thus far who seemed to be very weak without weapons, and if the Ghoul was one of these Classes that relied on weapons, then now was the time.
Lastly, the guards' were more so afraid of the man behind the man before him, and not the Ghoul himself.
Gritting his teeth, his two strong legs tightened and with a powerful kick, he lunged at the man with a dagger in hand.
Witnessing this, the seemingly dangerous crowd dispersed in fear, wildly running in different directions.
The man who first questioned Melvin was the first one to rush to block due to his proximity, and the skin all over his body thickened becoming rough and coarse, like that of an elephant except its color remained the same.
Melvin's eyes shone with a vicious glint, and because of how much he blamed the Ghoul for a lot of his problems, holding back wasn't something that was remotely registered in his mind at the time.
The man countered with a punch, but he swiftly evaded it and directly jabbed the dagger inside the man's throat. Not wasting any time with him, he tossed him to the side and continued his charge.
"Jacob?" Uttered the black and white striped leader after noticing Melvin's hood being pulled back after his fast charge.
That sudden question had indeed managed to make a stop to Melvin's charge, and he just stood there looking at the man who had removed the hood from his face.
Tanned face with two scars on his right cheek, short scruffy hair, a light mustache, and stubble.
The fact that he knew his name, Melvin was certain that this was the Ghoul.
"I was waiting for you," The Ghoul said with a faint smile on his lips.
Hearing that, Melvin became even more vigilant, wary of some unexpected thing happening. If the Ghoul was indeed waiting for him then he must've prepared, he reasoned.
[You have killed a Human Monk(Initiate: Rank 9). You have received 2800 XP]
The sight of the notification quickly woke him from his reverie, and he noticed that the men surrounding his target were slowly surrounding him.
Melvin's eyes slowly flicked back to the man before him. "Did you kill the others?" He asked.
Quickly understanding who the others were the Ghoul grinned and said shrugging his shoulders, "No, but I should've."
Melvin's gaze narrowed when he heard that, and though the men were slowly encircling him, he wasn't that afraid of them. Only the Ghoul could prove to be a challenge to him.
"So," the Ghoul said, "How did you get so strong in such a short amount of time?" His eyes were both greedy and dying with intrigue.
Melvin finding that there wasn't really much to talk about, was about to lunge at the man. But the voice soon cut him off, "Unlike all of the others," He said, "I know you very well. What happened in the last couple of days... is impossible. What do you have..."
"Fuck off," Melvin just mumbled, disgusted if anything by the creature before him, and immediately charged with death in his eyes.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The Ghoul was about to say something but witnessing Melvin's charge, he readied himself to defend.
Although the men who surrounded him appeared unafraid previously, when they saw Melvin rushing at them with a vicious glint they all backed away. After all their buddy's corpse was still gushing out with blood.
A huge crowd had already formed around them, and especially after witnessing the bleeding corpse, they made even more noise that attracted even more people.
True to Melvin's expectations, the Ghoul was indeed very weakened because of the lack of any weapons. When he lunged at him with a dagger in hand, all he could do in response was fight with his body and defend. His hands skillfully moved and pushed Melvin's dagger aside and sent a swift kick to his stomach.
However, Melvin's agility proved to be slightly higher allowing him to dodge to the side. After that one attack, the two halted in their steps, eyeing one another with a solemn glare.
The Ghoul looked especially alert as he gritted his teeth and his hands stood in preparation.
Melvin's eyes quickly caught sight of all of the people watching them, and he knew that he had to get this over with very quickly. Otherwise, the guards might rush down and this would become infinitely more complicated.
He took out his other dagger and gripped it with his left hand, and with a deep exhale, he jumped at the man once again.
One attack after the next, the Ghoul proved to be a formidable opponent, and try as he could, Melvin wasn't able to land even a single attack. This had always been his biggest shortcoming, a lack of experience in fighting.
Suddenly, he made a seemingly unrelated whistle and continued fighting with the man. He dashed through the air with a front kick aiming for the Ghoul's stomach, but once again he easily dodged and his punch raced for Melvin's throat.
Evading the punch and stabilizing himself Melvin found his body situated very close to the Ghoul after the previous attack, and that was precisely the reason he attacked in such a way.
In a split second, he noticed the man's expression shift as his eyes widened and he glanced down, and that was what he had been waiting for all this time.
His grip over the dagger tightened, and after mustering every bit of strength in his legs, he jumped in the man's direction with everything he had. Quickly reaching him with his body slightly tilted, Melvin simultaneously moved both hands and jabbed them in opposite sides of the man's face, taking advantage of his momentary pause.
The Ghoul's eyes that were slowly moved down swiftly paused and glanced up with a terrified expression. His hand reflexively reached around the wound, and by then Melvin had already twisted the daggers once again and pulled.
His hands pointlessly flailed around his neck, trying to stop the fountain of blood from gushing out, but to no avail. Suddenly, he stopped and attempted to run in his men's direction, but Melvin was already expecting such a course of action and kicked him for the side.
He knew that Novice Tiers had a lot of vitality, so they could always save their lives if they took a healing potion in a timely manner. Noticing how the Ghoul's men were trying to approach, he glared at them with a cold look. That was when he noticed the man who had taken the pouch of money earlier from the cloaked man, and so looking at him he said, "Give me that pouch that man gave you earlier and I'll let him go."
Registering the words, the man fumbled around his clothes before he brought out the pouch and threw it at him. Catching it in his eyes, Melvin merely chuckled, "Now, piss off."
His eyes inadvertently made contact with the close to a hundred people looking at him from a distance, and he felt very surreal. Whenever someone caught him looking at them, they'd swiftly avert their eyes and slowly retreat a few steps, afraid he might attack them.
As he was lost in that feeling, looking at everyone with a complicated expression with two bloody daggers in hand, the notifications he had been waiting for arrived.
[You have killed a Human Rogue(Novice: Rank 2). You have received 8500 XP]
[Congratulations! You have reached Rank 5]
[Legendary Class(Rune Mythomancer) Stats Assigned: + 3 Wisdom, + 2 Vitality, + 2 Strength, + 2 Agility, + 1 Intelligence, + 1 Charm]
[Common Class(Thief) Stats Assigned: + 1 Vitality, + 1 Strength, + 2 Agility]
[Select one of the following skills:
Illusory Runes – You gain the ability to write an illusion into a Rune that would be stored inside of your body. In a range of five meters, you can forcefully bring your opponents into those illusions.
Rune Sensitivity – You gain the ability to sense Runes of all types.]
[Select one of the following skills:
Tracking – By honing your senses and focus, you gain the ability to mark a target with a subtle energy signature, enabling you to monitor their movements and whereabouts for a duration of five minutes.
Backstab – You receive a 20% Damage increase when you attack someone from behind.]
However, he quickly dismissed all of the notifications for now, and he turned around to take a look.
The Ghoul's body had already stopped twitching and he just laid there, face frozen with fear and unwillingness. Melvin approached it, and began rummaging through it, looking for more money. Yet, he couldn't find anything on him. But his eyes swiftly widened as something peculiar appeared.
[- The Pandawan's Ring(6 Strength) -]
'What the heck is that?!' Melvin thought as he looked at this small interface that he had never seen before. It was then that he noticed a ring on the man's finger that was equally strange. Instead of the materials being some sort of metal, it looked like a piece of leather that still had fur. As he gazed at the black and white stripes of fur all over the ring, that small interface reappeared once again.
Without wasting any more time, he took the ring off the corpse's finger and put it in his. Immediately he could feel the extra strength coursing through his body, and after the last improvements after his Rank Up, he knew that if the Ghoul appeared before him now he would be able to overpower him with a single attack.
He gestured for Firrol who previously helped give him that short window of opportunity with his fight with the Ghoul, and the two of them walked through the big crowd that obediently split in fear to make way for them. Melvin glared back at them with a cold look as he put on his hood.
Once they distanced themselves slightly from them, the duo began running at their maximum speed, leaving the manufacturing area behind them and disappearing into the sinuous streets of Nightmond City.