“Lukas!” Lily shouted as she used Rank 2 Skill - Vines Manipulation and summoned vines from the ground and created a new door to block the invaders.
She rushed toward Lukas and helped him up.
“I’m fine, big sis.” He said with a nosebleed. “I was just caught by surprise.”
“We need to run, right now.” Lily pulled Lukas up and pointed toward the back window.
Just then, a sword slashed through half of the newly made vine door, and a voice that sounded as trustworthy as a pig telling a fish it could fly entered her ears.
“Sorry about that. This idiot here only knows how to be a brute. We don’t want to hurt you. We just want to talk.”
As if I will believe that, bastards. Lily thought as she pushed Lukas toward the window.
She turned back and used [Vine Manipulation], poured more Mana into the Skill, and created three more vine doors.
When she turned back, Lukas was opening the window and signaling her to go first.
She dashed toward him and stood next to the window. But before they went out, she put a piece of white cloth on a thin log and shoved it out the window. The moment the log went out of the window, a blunt arrow shot at the log and bounced off. Lily withdrew the log and a small tear on the cloth that had purple mixed with yellow liquid around it.
“Paralyzing poison made from plants in this forest.” She said.
“Wh-what should we do, big sis?” Lukas asked as he was holding his wooden sword close to his chest.
“Stay calm, Lukas, we can…”
"It's taking too long, boss. I’m burning this place down.” A different but no less obnoxious voice spoke.
“Do what you want.” The first voice replied as the cutting stopped.
Lily snapped toward the door as smoke sipped into the cabin.
-----
“You don’t want those items, little Toby?”
“No. I want nothing to do with them. I don’t want to end up the same way.”
“…You are this era’s Dark Lord.”
“And who said I must act like a Dark Lord and go around killing people just because you and everyone else labeled me as such?” Toby snapped toward Grillion. “The previous Dark Lords might have had no choice since their Path was set in stone from the start. But I’m different. I have a Healer Path. Meaning I can discard being a Dark Lord and be a Healer. This is my life. I’m the one in charge of my destiny.”
Grillion looked back at the notebook with a sad gaze as he said, “You can’t escape your fate. No one can.”
“Fate?” He sneered. “Ha, fuck that bullshit. Fuck removing the curse. Fuck being a Dark Lord.”
Toby stormed off, leaving the notebook and the stone ring on the table.
Grillion sighed and followed Toby. Once they were out of the tree, the gap closed and returned the tree to its former appearance.
The two went back in silence. The only sound between them was the leaves crunching beneath Grillion’s boot.
They travel for who knew how long before Toby suddenly stopped. His nose twitched as he opened his mouth to smell the scent clearer. It was the smell of smoke and the stench of blood. He knew both all too well.
“Gramp… Something’s wrong. I smell smoke and blood.”
Reacting to Toby’s words as he looked toward the cabin location. “We need to get back, now.”
After Grillion said that, he swung his backpack to his front, shoved his hand in, and took out two cookies. “This will boost our speed temporarily, quick.”
Grillion tossed Toby one cookie as he ate the other. Toby caught the cookie with his mouth and swallowed it without chewing.
[Lavar cookies consumed for the first time]
[Reward: 10 Life Exp. Life Exp: 50 -> 60]
[Thanks to (Healer Path), the Dexterity effect of the meal is enhanced by 5%]
Toby focused and flew forward as fast as he could. But he still moved at the same speed he always flew at.
“What the hell,” Toby exclaimed as he tried his hardest to fly faster.
He failed, and Grillion had to grab Toby and put him on his head. “This isn’t the time to mess around.”
“I can’t fly faster with a Dexterity boost. I need a Mana or Mind boost or something.”
“Oh… right. Sorry about that.” The goblin scratched his head while still moving forward at least one and a half times faster than what Toby had seen before.
The closer they got, the more smoke they saw. They got closer and closer until a burning cabin was in their sight.
When the goblin saw fire, he dashed forward even faster. Moments later, Toby saw two men dressed like bandits with leather armor, ugly faces, and whatnot, his eyes burned red.
The man holding a sword was carrying a tied-up, gagged, and passed out Lily on his shoulder. There were too many bleeding wounds on her cheek, shoulders, body, legs, and hands. She must have fought hard to keep the bandits away from Lukas.
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The other guy, the bigger one with a hammer, was kicking Lukas as the boy lay on the ground. Despite the pain, the boy never let go of his sword.
“Gramp, throw me toward them,” Toby shouted. And Grillion acted.
Since his [Resilience] was high and his [Mind], [Mana] still had the tutorial buff, the obvious choice was to increase physical strength. System, putting all points into [Strength].
[Strength increase: 16 -> 26]
[Distribution point: 10 -> 0]
The goblin picked Toby up from his head, spun thrice like some Olympic spear-throwing athlete, and threw Toby at the big guy with a hammer, who was kicking Lukas.
As he flew through the air, Toby retracted inside his shell and used [Magic Hand] to boost his speed. He used the Skill again to rotate himself as quickly as possible, turning him into a living cannonball flying right at the big guy’s face.
Toby was expecting to knock the guy off balance, creating a chance to get Lukas away from these bandits. Once he knocked the big guy, he would tell Lukas to run toward Grillion while he charged at the sword guy to try and get his hands off of Lily. He would use [Magic Hand] to crush the guy's left hand, forcing him to drop Lily, then he would use the sand [Magic Hand] to lift Lily away while he kept the two bandits occupied.
But the plan went haywire from the first step.
[You killed a Rank 2 – Human – Warrior Path for the first time]
[Reward: 20 Exp. Exp: 0 -> 20]
[Reward: 30 Life Exp. Life Exp: 60 -> 90]
When he hit the big guy's face with his spinning shell, the force was so strong that instead of knocking the guy away, his head turned 1080 degrees. Toby smashed into the ground about five steps away from both the sword guy and the big guy, creating a loud bang as the big guy’s head rotated thrice.
Toby came out of his shell only to see the big guy’s head staring at him with wide eyes as blood started to spurt out from the tear on his neck as if he were some kind of fucked-up sprinkler. His head got displaced as it slowly slit to the side, and only two-thirds of the head was still connected to the neck. Once that happened, the blood stopped straying around like a sprinkler and started shooting upward like a fountain. With his omniscient view, Toby could clearly see how twisted the muscles and ligaments in the guy’s neck were. He could even see half of the guy’s spine in the middle of his exposed neck.
The big guy’s blood sprayed on Toby, Lukas, Lily, and the sword-wielding guy.
Toby looked at what he had done. He felt like a thousand bony fingers were scratching and grabbing his gut at the same time. He couldn’t help but puke.
"YOU FUCKER. DIE."
Yet, before Toby could finish puking, a sword came down at him. He followed his instinct and used Mana to push himself out of the way as the sword cut the spot he was at earlier. Then came an arrow out of nowhere. Once again, his instinct was the best, as he followed it and retracted into his shell as an arrow pierced the spot his head was at if he didn't retract.
The arrow failed to hurt him, but it was still a close call.
Sensing Mana gathering, Toby shifted his focus toward the sword guy again. He was charging at Toby while still carrying Lily on his shoulder. Mana was swirling around his sword like a tornado; it was most likely a Skill. Something Toby didn’t want to be at the receiving end of.
Toby threw himself straight up into the air before the sword guy pointed his sword. Mana took the shape of a water drill and shot out from the sword’s tip toward the ground. Once the mana touched the ground, it drilled, tore, and ripped the ground apart as dirt and rock flew everywhere.
Floating above the sword guy's face, Toby used the spinning shell move again and threw himself at the sword guy. The guy raised his sword to block Toby, and he succeeded. But before he could counterattack, Toby popped out of his shell, used [Magic Hand] to push the sword down, and slapped the guy’s face with [B*tch Slap].
Eating a slap right on his left cheek, the guy’s eyes shook as he took two steps back.
Taking this chance, Toby shot forward again, but the guy dodged instead of trying to block this time. Failing to anticipate that, Toby flew over the guy and stopped mid-air behind him.
“Minap, shoot this monster.” The sword guy shouted, most likely toward the archer hiding somewhere.
But neither answer nor arrow came to assist the sword guy.
Toby was thankful for Grillion since it was most likely the goblin who was dealing with the archer. He was confident that, at this rate, he could take down this sword guy and rescue Lily.
“Let go of my sister!” Lukas shouted as he raised his wooden sword over his head and charged at the sword guy from the guy’s right side.
The guy smirked as the clumsy and ragged wolf boy ran toward him. He peaked at Toby and gathered Mana around his sword again. Before Toby could get close, the guy pointed the sword toward Lukas, and Mana shot out like a drill. If the attack landed on Lukas, it would drill into the boy and give him a massive hole that would tear him in half. Toby couldn’t let that happen.
But he was closer to Lukas than the sword guy. If he shot toward the sword guy and tried to redirect the attack by slamming the guy’s wrist, the attack would most likely still land on and kill Lukas.
Having no other choice, Toby shot toward the attack and intercepted its trajectory. He retracted into his shell and used [Magic Hand] to both spin and cover himself to reduce the drill’s power.
Being hit by the water drill was like being hit by a bus that was going full speed on an empty highway. And that truck had a freaking drill attached to it. Toby gritted his beak like the tough turtle he was and took the full hit. He shouted and used more Mana to cover himself and successfully pushed the drill toward the ground to the side.
But Toby was also pushed toward the ground on the opposite side. He slammed and skipped on the ground twice as a flat rock skipped on the water's surface. His inside felt like he just finished ten rides on a rollercoaster of death. Every muscle on his body felt terrible and goddamn painful. His head was buzzing and he felt disoriented for a spit second.
“Let her GO!” On the bright side, Lukas was able to approach the sword guy and swung his wooden sword down.
The guy sneered and backstepped out of range. Or so he thought.
When Lukas swung down, the wooden tip still touched the sword guy. The touch didn’t cut or leave wounds on the enemy's body. But the sword guy still shook as if he were in a seizure before he threw up blood. But he was still lucid enough to kick Lukas straight in the stomach and push the boy away.
Taking this chance after he recovered a bit, Toby shot toward the guy again.
With eyes filled with unhinged rage and bloodlust, the guy threw Lily, who was on his shoulder, at Toby. Once again taken by surprise, Toby popped out of his shell and used [Magic Hand] to catch Lily.
But before he could catch Lily, his instinct forced him to snap his head to the side. Just when he did so, a sword stabbed through Lily's chest, cut through Toby’s left cheek, and stabbed his left shoulder.
“BIG SIS LILY,” Lukas yelled as he scrambled on his feet toward Lily.
Still in shock from the figure of Lily getting stabbed, Toby couldn’t react before the sword pulled back. He caught Lily’s falling body and laid her gently down on the ground. A red pool quickly formed beneath her as blood kept gushing out from the wound.
“Lily,” Toby floated above the girl as he spoke her name again and again like a broken record. He didn’t care about the sword guy running away.
I have healing a Skill. Toby shouted at himself.
Snapping out of his nightmare, Toby tried to use [Healing Hand] on Lily. But.
[The user does not have Water Element nearby. Healing cannot be done.]
The System’s cold voice was like thunder to his ears. “Where the fuck is the closest Water Element!”
[The closest Water Element the user could use as a healing medium is a sword fifteen feet away toward the Southwest.]
It’s that motherfucker’s sword. Toby thought as he wasted no time and chased after the fucker.
Please, please, please, let me make it. Not this time. Not again. Please.
[Dark Lord Corruption unsealed]
[Dark Lord Corruption Progress: 0.5%]