The Second – Arachnid

“Hey, have you heard? There’s a rumor flying around about a band of thieves.”

“Huh? There are a lot of thieves. What makes this group special?”

“Exactly. That’s what I asked. Apparently, their leader is a Diamond General.”

“What? Seriously?”

“Yeah. And what’s more, their group is made up of Generals and Apprentices.”

“. . . Woah. What a strong group.”

This band of thieves, Arachnid, was led by CrawlingMan who ranks as a Diamond General. Thanks to this, CrawlingMan was able to defeat two Silver Generals and fifty Apprentices ranging from Bronze to Diamond rank. They all became his subordinates. 

CrawlingMan desired the life of the wealthy. He was born in a family that earned just enough for their daily needs. But in school, he learned of the existence of hierarchy and realized he was at the bottom. He was devastated at how the wealthy would treat him like trash. Thus, he swore to himself that he would train to be the strongest. Naturally, when you are strong, you don’t need to work for money; it comes to you.

His first victim was a village to the south. When he tasted the fruits of his labor, he was addicted. “Ah! This is it. This is the life I wanted.”

CrawlingMan was overjoyed. Oh, what a wonderful life it is where maids tend to your every need, and servants obey your every order; not to mention, a whole fighting group is at your command. It would have been better if he could share this feeling with his family, but alas! They were long dead; murdered at the hands of the wealthy.

It was their fault for being weak, he thought to himself. That's why CrawlingMan would always prioritize his training. In order to live, he must be strong; strong enough to dominate his enemies and protect what is his.

However, as fate would have it, an obstacle blocked his way to power.

It happened on a night of the new moon. CrawlingMan led his group Arachnid for another raid. Their target was an unremarkable village with a population of more than a hundred. When CrawlingMan decided on his target, he sent out a subordinate to recon. The subordinate reported a surprising discovery. There were only two or three practitioners in the village, all in the Apprentice rank.

The heavens are siding with me!

CrawlingMan was elated. After amassing wealth for several years, with the addition of the unremarkable village, he would soon be able to own land equal to a small duchy. Soon, he would be known as the Diamond General, Duke CrawlingMan. 

“Prepare yourselves, my men. I expect that by tomorrow, that puny village would be under my control.” CrawlingMan bared his teeth and raised the moral of his group.

Night.

“Kuhahaha! Attack!”

“Uraaaaaaaaaa!”

Thunderous footsteps sounded as more than fifty men charged to the unsuspecting village six hundred meters to their north. Had it been a normal human army of fifty, they wouldn’t have been able to make vibrations in the ground with merely the strength of their legs. However, this was an army of practitioners capable of breaking a boulder down to tiny pieces. With speed faster than average humans, this group of fifty soon reached the gates of the village. Slashing and hacking, they toppled over the wooden gate with their weapons and charged through. Meanwhile, CrawlingMan was at the back of the group, leisurely strolling through the village. It would appear that he now treated this village like his own and forbade his men from destroying the houses too much. They only needed to capture the villagers and kill the practitioners.

Heh. Those weaklings never knew what hit them. CrawlingMan ordered his men to bring the reported practitioners to him while he waited at the center of the village.

Soon, the whole village was gathered at the center, kneeling on the ground for mercy. Somehow, it made CrawlingMan feel powerful. The lives of these hundred people were at the tips of his fingers.

“Ugh. You bastards!”

“Let go of me!”

Two voices screamed in anger as they were manhandled to him.

“That’s fine. I’ll handle them,” CrawlingMan said with a wicked smile as he proceeded to stand in front of the two practitioners. One was dressed in light clothing and the other was dressed in low level armor. Tsk. Beginners, he thought in disdain. As the leader, there was no need for him to deal with these two. One of the two Silver Generals under him was enough. But he thought it was necessary to show his power to his people so that they wouldn’t think of rebelling in the future.

“I’m pretty sure that you are aware of your impending doom. But I can be merciful this time. Think of it as a parting gift. I’ll stand here and allow you to attack me for sixty seconds. Go ahead and attack me together, it’s not like that’ll make any difference.” The members of Arachnid snickered at his obvious taunt. It was inevitable; he was a Diamond General and the two were only Apprentices. They don’t stand a chance.

The two were furious. Such blatant insults! No one among those on the path to power would tolerate such insolence. But they couldn’t do anything about it for the difference between them was indeed that big.

“Grr. I refuse to bow down to you!”

“I prefer to die!”

Shouting their battle cries, the two decided to go all out and attack.

CrawlingMan, with a height of two and a half meters towered over the two. Dressed in bronze armor, his muscles bulged at the arms and legs. And with a disdainful glare and a mocking grin, he was the epitome of a tyrant.

The one with the light clothes and thick eyebrows unsheathed his sword. He attacked first and slashed towards his opponent but he was repelled. He couldn’t even scratch the man’s bronze armor.

The other with the low level armor and a mustache positioned his spear and thrust it to the weak point of the bronze armor. He was a level faster than the man with the thick eyebrows and because he attacked later, both of their attacks landed at the same time. The other wasn’t able to injure him but he was able to.

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Jumping back, the man with the mustache displayed a smirk. He was able to wound the leader on the elbows.

“You are courting death!” A threatening aura covered the center of the village as CrawlingMan’s blood dripped down his arm. He was furious; he didn’t think they could even injure him. “It seems that even weaklings like you can think once in a while.”

Enraged, he proceeded to attack the one with the mustache. Faster than the two of them could react, he sent a fist towards his head with a strength that could pulverize a rock. 

The man with the mustache was scared silly. His fear prevented him from moving. He could only watch as that fist came closer and closer. His eyes widened; he knew he was going to die.

The man with a sword wanted to save him but what can he do? If a General fought him seriously, there was no way he could fight back. And his opponent was at the peak of Generals; he was a Diamond rank. He could only curse him to death.

Even the villagers felt sorry for the man with the mustache. He and the man with the sword were outsiders who happened to stay at their village for some rest. And now, they were on their way to eternal rest.

“Enough.” Suddenly, a gentle voice echoed through the whole village.

CrawlingMan ignored it and poured his strength to shatter the body of the man before him. But amazingly, he couldn’t move. His fist was almost there, just touching the tip of the man’s nose but that was it. He mustered all his strength but he couldn’t push any further.

Wh-what’s happening?!, CrawlingMan thought in panic. Alarm bells started ringing in his mind.

Footsteps slowly sounded in the silence. And soon, a figure in black cloak appeared in his vision. Standing against the light of the moon, the figure’s head was covered with a hood. The only thing CrawlingMan could see was striking sky blue eyes. In any day, it would’ve caught the admiration of many but on this night, those eyes were mercilessly cold.

Curses! Even my voice is not working. An expert. If I had known there was an expert among them, I wouldn’t have dared to raid this village!

Such were the thoughts of CrawlingMan. 

There were unspoken rules in this world of practitioners. If an individual stood before you and you couldn’t sense his aura even with your eyes open, then that individual is either an expert or possesses a unique treasure that could hide his aura.

Naturally, as one grows stronger, the body releases an aura unique to him alone that corresponds to his strength. When an expert wishes to, he can hide his aura and those weaker than him could not sense it no matter how hard they try.

This scene was an example of that.

The cloaked man waved his hand and the power that froze CrawlingMan vanished. Hurriedly, he retracted his arm and knelt on the ground.

“My humble apologies, senior. This junior was foolish and didn’t believe senior would be amidst the group of villagers.” CrawlingMan hurriedly tried to appease the expert and win his favor. If everything works out, the expert would peacefully leave and he could resume with the raid.

“What is your name?”

“Yes. This junior is named CrawlingMan. It is my pleasure to be of your acquaintance.”

“Mm. CrawlingMan, immediately leave this village or die by my hand.”

CrawlingMan’s face instantly turned ugly. This was what he didn’t want to happen. “Senior, if you would reconsider—”

“Enough. I have already given you a choice to live. Decide now.”

CrawlingMan clenched his teeth. Be it pride or something else he didn’t know but he somehow felt indignant. He stood up in a flash and attacked the cloaked man. Unsheathing his sword midway, he mustered all his strength for a one-hit attack.

The chances of an expert staying at an unremarkable small village were close to zero. Such high and mighty people looked down on everyone. They wouldn’t bat an eye even if a kingdom was burnt to ashes. The things that could move these prideful beings were few in their number. Thus, this expert covered in cloak could only be someone with a unique treasure—powerful enough to freeze even the likes of a Diamond General.

In actuality, he might even be weaker than me. This was the only conclusion CrawlingMan could come to. He refuses to believe that the mighty experts would come to such a village. 

And in reality, CrawlingMan could not be blamed for coming to such a conclusion. But in his anger, he has forgotten something. The experts were indeed prideful but aside from that, they were also eccentric and had weird tendencies. He had eliminated the thought that one of them could possibly be bored and decided to pose as a normal villager.

And this mistake determined CrawlingMan’s fate.

With a power that could pulverize boulders, CrawlingMan slashed his sword horizontally on the cloaked man’s neck. Decapitation was the quickest way to kill a practitioner. Seeing that his attack landed, CrawlingMan was overjoyed.

But the strangest thing was, the cloaked man didn’t move an inch and the slash mark through his neck was nowhere to be seen. Instead, CrawlingMan saw something flash on the split second that he sliced through the cloaked man’s neck.

Drip. Drip.

“Leader!”

The widened eyes and fearful expressions of his men confused him. When he proceeded to speak, he found that he couldn’t. When he looked down, blood decorated his bronze armor. As he lifted his head to look at the cloaked man, his consciousness left him. His head fell to the ground, detached from the rest of his body.