After a long time to calm his emotions, Grey stood up and walked to the wooden house which was nearby the lake. Each time he made a step he felt like his feet had been made of lead. When he reached the house doorstep, his eyes shone with a faint light of decisiveness. He could only go forward from now on.
He opened the old wooden door and stepped inside the house. A faint cherry perfume could be smelled inside. It was his mother’s favorite. The perfume that filled his childhood. Reminiscing about his mother loving gaze, her gentle smile while she was looking at him, her silvery white hair which combined with her light blue eyes gave her an aura of a goddess. He wanted to cry. But he couldn’t. He already did a long time ago. And now was not the time to do so.
Heading directly for the cave, he passed through the living room where his family used to be living happily inside, the kitchen where he used to eat his mother’s delicious meals, the room where his sister and he used to play together.
He took a stairway which led him deeper in the ground before being faced with and iron door. The door wasn’t locked, like waiting for him to go through it. He lightly pushed it and an ear-piercing noise could be heard as the gears haven’t been taken care of since a long time. He entered the room behind it, there was only darkness. He extended his hand to the wall next to him and poured his mana in it. From the spot where his hand was, streaks of lights started to emerge and went in all direction, illuminating the room. This was a common magic array used to illuminate dark places if mana was used to fuel it.
Grey eyes scanned the room in front of him before finding what he was looking for. On a table in the corner of the room were the objects he was looking from. A long sleeved black leather hood jacket printed with blue lines on the sleeves, enhanced with magic to keep the body warm and was resistant enough to resist sharp steel sword with sword auras below level 3. A black t shirt which granted heat resistance and was strong enough reduced physical impact by a small margin. Black leather pants with its belt. Both granted a boost in dexterity and agility, with the ability to take on blows from people with sharp knives. A pair of white gloves granting a bonus in strength. And his favorite, a pair of boots with which he could go 15% faster. Aside from these clothes, there was also a silver bracelet and a black ring, one granting him the ability to change his status page when displayed t an outsider and the other one working as a storage ring. He looked around a bit before finding a long bow made of black wood. The hardness of black wood was good and the string was from a king class earth spider, it was his deceased mother’s bow. He found the quiver alongside three dozen or so arrows of same quality. He searched around again until he found a long steel sword deprived of magic array. With everything ready, he headed upstairs and entered the bathroom.
He took off his tattered clothes, revealing a muscular but scarred body. Some of his scars were old but new ones could be seen atop of them. After getting undress, he activated the magic array inside the bathroom to produce hot water before diving inside. He let out a small cry of pain. He forgot that his body was freezing due to the temperature outside and dived in hot water without thinking of the consequences. He leaned his body against one of the bathtub wall and slowly closed his eyes. And took a rest for the first time since a very long time…
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Meanwhile, somewhere far away, deep underneath the earth, two men were walking in an old corridor.
One of them was dressed in an expensive attire coupled with precious jewelry on his finger. This man was someone of great influence or someone who possessed enough fortune for people to show him respect. The man following him was fully dressed in white. Although his clothes looked way less expensive than the other one, the power in them could make one break out in cold sweat just by being next to him.
They both walked down this dark corridor while holding what seemed like a lantern until they arrived at their destination. When they stopped, both felt a shiver running down their spine. In front of them was two corpses. Though they were nearly no more flesh on them, they could recognise what was in front them. The corpse of those gigantic being released an aura which was that befitting of those who stand above all the livings. They were dragons.
After regaining their wits both men started to laugh. They knew that they would stumble on something amazing by coming here. But they did not expect that. They started to look around to see if there were no traps or anything which could endanger their life whatsoever while examining those corpses. After making sure that no problem would arise while they will be distracted they both stepped forth and studied those dragons. The first thing they looked for was at their core. A dragon’s core contained an absurd amount of condensed mana, enough to fuel a whole capital for a hundred of years without showing sign of depleting. A nearly bottom less abyss of mana.
After searching for few hours, they looked at each other terrified. Both cores have disappeared. Someone was here before them. However, something made them frown. If someone has been here before, why would he leave those dragons bones which simply are the best material when it comes to forging weapon since they can withstand the strongest type of offensive array without breaking. It made no sense. Thus, the only other possibility was that a monster or a magical beast was the one who took them, which was not a great news either. If a monster or a magical beast happens to consume a dragon core, it is the same has making him evolve from common class type to disaster class. A disaster class monster who specializes in close combat would be like a lv.100 or so warrior. It was way too strong.
The man in white looked at his companion and gave him a glance signaling him that they should take as much as they could and leave. The other was about to nod when an idea came up in his mind. It was a delirious idea. No one would dare to think about it. But, if he succeeded, he could foresee himself being at the top of the world. He gave his companion a cold smile while looking at him in his eyes.
“I have a better idea…”
The man in white shuddered when he heard what his companion had in mind.
How about committing suicide? That’s no different!
Those words were his thoughts and his lasts.
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Grey walked out of the wooden house with his new clothes on, his quiver and bow equipped and his sword and gun in their respective place. He took a last look at the tomb stones which were next to the lake, showered in a glimmer of sunlight. There were three of them. Though he hated his father for what he has done and couldn’t forgive him, he knew that his mother wouldn’t have wished for her husband to rot in the depth of the lake.
After biding his biding his farewell to his family graves he set off. As of now, he was only 15, and besides fighting and killing and the basic common knowledge he knew nothing else. He needed to broaden his view of the world. He couldn’t stay idle neither just aimlessly wander in this world. Thus his first goal was to reach Archon. Archon was the second only to the capital city Hesta in the Human Kingdom, and had an academy to which he could attend. His father had saved up quite a lot of money so he wasn’t afraid of any kind of fee if it was needed, neither was he afraid of not being admitted. The registration would only happen a month from now and he only needed something like a week by feet to reach Archon. And he could use the remaining three weeks he had to catch up by borrowing or buying books there.
However, something made him uneasy. If the bracelet failed to concealed his true status, he would be in trouble. City guards were not a threat to him. But, Elders were. If there were only his level and his stats it would have been fine, but his race was the problem. He couldn’t tell them that since he had been implanted a core inside his body he stopped being human and became a Nephilim. People wouldn’t believe him. At first he thought that it was some kind of ritual, until he discovered that it was simply committing suicide. Really. When assassin wanted to suicide after getting caught, they just had to swallow a core chard and in the next few seconds their mana veins would expose and they would die the next second. Thus no one would believe him.
He shook his head lightly displaying a bitter smile before turning his head to the forest behind the house. Then his body disappeared from where he stood and sounds of leaves scattering in the wind could be heard.
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A few days later, inside a forest which was separating the Northern grassland and the Human Kingdom, a carriage was on its way back home at a not slow but not fast pace.
“Sigh. What should I do…”
Those words were spoken by a young woman, she was 16 years old this year. Although she was wearing hard leather armor on her, when one saw her dignified look with her deep black eyes and hair, one could tell that she was a noble. Her smooth white skin couldn’t belong to those who suffered hardship since they were young, and her body curves were fine and modest. She was currently talking with her maid who accompanied her inside the carriage to relive her boredom.
“My lady, I think it will be wise for you to start to consider to act more ladylike and…”
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Stop, I don’t want to talk about this. I still have 2 years before being forced to stay home every day while waiting for a man who will fulfil my father’s and my standards. So, until then let me have fun, okay?”
As if! Let’s not even mention your standards, no man will propose to you if a simple glare from you make him fear for his life! And how risking your life in the wilderness can be fun?
Though the maid had an unconvinced look on her face which was clearly visible for the young lady, the latter didn’t say anything as she knew very well what was troubling her. If it was only for her beauty, many men will come rushing to her door to propose to her, but since she castrated a man in a public area for carelessly touching her, they started to fear her. And, aside from her father and brothers, she could only look at other men with a cold face while glaring at them. Not without reason, the young noble men usually had one common thing when they looked at her, though they try to hide it, an hint of lust was clearly present. They didn’t even know her, and they didn’t care about her, they just wanted her body and nothing less, nothing more.
The young lady resumed her daydreaming was gazing at the forest which was around them. Only after her sixth sense told her that something was wrong that she noticed something was wrong in what she was seeing. In the shadows of the trees, she could see faint yellow lights moving at their speed, slowly getting closer to them.
Sensing her young mistress’ body getting tensed, the maid frowned and looked in the same direction as her. When she saw the yellow dots getting closer and brighter, her face paled in fright.
“Armoured shadow grizzly!”
She opened the carriage door and shouted while pointing at the dark figures which were slowly closing on them. The horses which couldn’t sense the presence of the shadow grizzly before became alerted and started to lose their mind. Shadow grizzly could erase their presence, making weaker enemies who had a great awareness of danger to not feel anything. However, their four yellow eyes were their weak points. If their prey saw them, no matter how much they reduce their presence, only one beast was famous for its yellow eyes and his stealth abilities in the forest here.
The guards who were aware of the incoming danger calmed their horse with all their capabilities. Those who were walking by foot positioned themselves in front of the carriage and the those and horse. In total, there were 16 of them by foot who served as vanguard, they unsheathed their sword and started to pour magic in it to activate their offensive array. At the same time, they used body magic to strengthen themselves.
Seeing that their preys were already aware of their presence, the shadow grizzlies just went straight at them at full speed.
The young lady in the carriage, whose name is JOHN C Sylvia Bethel, flicked her hand and a two-handed claymore appeared in front of her. The sword was made of hard red leather which was tempered in a king class magical beast blood, and the blade which was four feet long and ten inches wide, was made of titanium. Titanium is a well know metal for its ability to withstand the use of high level type of array.
Clenching her sword In her hands, she was about to leave the carriage when a terrifying roar was heard. She felt a cold shiver run down her spine. Her sixth sense was screaming at her to flee without having any idea of looking back.
Frozen by terror, the guards and everyone else were looking toward the source of this terrifying roar. The shadow grizzlies which were running toward them increased in speed and appeared before the vanguards before jumping straight at them.
The guards feeling death being near, regained their wits and raised their shield to reduce the impact from the grizzlies strikes. The reason for their terror was not the shadow grizzlies in front of them, it was the king class magical beast, the underworld grizzly. Compared to the shadow grizzlies which were only three meters tall with four arms, two legs and four yellow eyes. The underworld grizzly had a unique red eye on his forehead but was bigger in size and had an additional pair of arms which were renowned for their terrifying strength. What’s more, unlike the shadow grizzly which used magic passively without knowing, king class monster knew different type of spells and could use them freely. In few words, king class monsters are stronger and clever.
The underworld grizzly’s roar gave the shadow grizzlies an advantage since their opponents could only defend under their continuous strike. These guards were not foolish, even if they wanted to retaliate they would have to wait for an opportunity to counter their opponents attack or a mistake from them. Still, their shield wouldn’t be able to withstand continuous strikes from shadow grizzlies for a long time and their arm were starting to feel numb.
Seeing this, Sylvia activated her offensive array on the claymore and raised it in the air before she swung it down in front of her. A thunder fell on the shadow grizzlies side, interrupting them, leaving room for the guards to catch their breath. The guards clenched their sword while activating their respective offensive array and each sword lit up in either flame, light or thunder and they started to retaliate. Looking from afar, the underworld grizzly saw his subordinates being pushed back. Though he knew that the human party wasn’t weak he didn’t expect them to be that strong. He opened his mouth and a black mist was released. The mist travelled quickly to the shadow grizzly, and when it reached them, their usual yellow eyes turned ashen red and drool started to seep from their mouth.
One of the six shadow grizzly suddenly caught a sword with his paw before pulling the sword with its wielder and bit off its neck. His paw was bleeding and blood could be seen coming out from places in his body, but it simply didn’t care. They have entered a berserk state because of the black mist. The complexion of the guards turned gloomy. Even if their opponents were beasts, as long as they had a sense of pain they could somehow control the flow of the fight by hitting where it hurts, but now, they would let a sword pierce their belly and still go forward to kill them.
The underworld grizzly pleased with the result started to move in their direction at a moderate speed. When arrived, only one shadow grizzly was left standing, drenched in blood, which belonged to him and those guards. However, noticing that the underworld grizzly was already here and only three guards were left standing, Sylvia ran at full speed at the last shadow grizzly, dodged its claw strikes before using lighting steps to appear behind him and swung her giant claymore at its neck to cut it. With this, it was her, the maid and three guards against this king class beast. The maid hadn’t stayed idle, to serve Sylvia’s family, all servants and guards needed to have some accomplishment in magic, thus as a fire 2nd rank fire magician, she could assist from the rear.
Though they had the number advantage, none of them could afford to relax. The difference between core class beasts and king class beasts was too huge. Carelessness wasn’t something they could afford. And they far from their peak condition. The maid’s mana pool was already depleted by half, the guards’ shields were destroyed and could only count on their sword. Their full plate armor had holes due to claw attacks and blood could be seen dripping from it. And as for Sylvia, her hair was disheveled, her skin was paler as she had used too much mana already, one of her thighs was bleeding, but only slightly, and her breathing was ragged.
Seeing the underworld grizzly, the maid started to chant the most offensive fire spell she could muster with her leftover mana, Fire Sword Fall. This spell summons a gigantic fire sword above the caster’s enemy, and fall on him leaving only dust left in a great explosion. Though this may start a wild fire in the forest, they couldn’t afford to care about it now.
Noticing that the maid began to chant, the other four needed to restrict the underworld grizzly movement to prevent it from dodging. They needed to restrict it for a whole thirty seconds. The three guards used the nearby trees as shields to move around it so they can encircle him. The underworld grizzly went on all six, and his body released three dark pulses in all direction. Each waves stroke everything in its way, some trunks resisted but cracks appeared on them while other just snapped when the waves touched them.
Two guards were behind weaker trees and couldn’t move to another one which was stronger in time, and by the second wave their body payed the price. The third one was behind a sturdier tree and could use it as a shield to protect himself from the dark pulses. As for Sylvia, she summoned an earth cocoon to protect her and the maid since they were still on the road side of the forest. Her earth cocoon was completely peeled off by the third wave.
Noticing that only two flies died, the underworld grizzly felt ashamed of himself and dashed behind the third guards and threw its body at him before he could react. The third guard’s body exploded on the impact since he was close to a tree (the third guard’s name was Petra…). In the end, what saved his life killed him indirectly.
After that, the underworld grizzly felt his limbs being restricted in the ground couldn’t pull them out. The next moment, a gigantic fire sword was above its head, the tip aiming at him. Its only eye constricted before releasing a deathly energy. The fire sword fell on the grizzly body but didn’t hit his body directly but a black shield formed by the underworld grizzly. A loud explosion occurred and scattered the nearby tree, and only left behind a meter-deep hole around a black shell. The black shield dissipated, leaving an unscathed grizzly. Despair could be seen in both Sylvia and the maid eyes. The grizzly jumped over the hole and arrived directly in front of Sylvia. The maid whose mana had reached a critical state, used the little bit of strength she had to place herself in front of the grizzly. The grizzly just shattered her body in a clean sweep of its paw.
Being the only one left alive, Sylvia couldn’t stay calm anymore. Everyone who accompanied her just died in less than ten minutes. Her legs were trembling and something hot could be felt in her nether region. She fell on her knees looking at the deathly glare emitted by the red eye of the underworld grizzly. What did she do to deserve this? She didn’t know, but the underworld grizzly knew. His wife and children, were killed by these petty humans, for their training. A king class beast would never engage on human, unless they lacked food or territory. And this case was the same, this beast was only seeking vengeance. Like they did in the past.
Opening it mouth revealing its sharp teeth and releasing a nauseous breath, the beast was about to eat the girl alive when it felt like death was looking at him. Its only eye alerted by the killing intend emitted his way released a scan spell in the surrounding to look for any leaving being nearby. But it was too late.
Right under his nose was already another human, his dark hair and light blue crystal eyes sent a cold shiver down its spine. Before he could even react, a bang sound was heard and its head exploded. In its last moments, the underworld beast was frightened, there was always a protective barrier around his body. Though not as resilient as the black shield it wasn’t something which could be pierced easily. Then, when it was pierced like a white sheet of paper, the only thing that came to his mind was the rumor among magical beasts of a kid with dark hair and blue eyes who slaughtered king class beasts like ants and could kill disaster class beasts too.
With a thud, the body of the underworld beast fell on the round, lifeless.
Sylvia who was still whimpering when death was near still hasn’t recovered and looked at the young man in front of her. When he appeared, she wanted to scream at him, to run and leave her. He didn’t know her thus why would he die in her place. But the moment he pulled aa strange object from his belt, and pointed it at the grizzly she had a faint light of hope in her eyes which transformed into amazement the moment she saw the dead body of the grizzly.
She couldn’t believe her eyes. What kind of weapon was it? And how could someone around her age use such destructive power?
She wanted to speak but no sound came from her mouth. Her body was still numb due to fear and she had no energy left. She closed her eyes and fell in a world of darkness, with the last thing she saw being his cold blue eyes looking at her with a hint of pity.