If you’re not strong enough, you’re bound to lose everything that you want to protect. Those words might best be suited to fit the description of this new world. Power determines right and wrong, the truth means nothing if you’re dead. No matter how hard you try, how much you believe, how much you bleed, the truth will never matter. The only way to answer power is with a stronger power.

Cyrus hadn’t really understood that simple truth until right now, when he watched the body go lifeless before his eyes. He didn’t know her long, but after seeing combat with someone and fighting side by side, it’s difficult not to find a sort of bond with them. It’s a bond that goes farther than blood and deeper than the eyes can see. Almost instinctual and lifelike, evolving like the creatures that roam the land.

Peluna had been so close to saving their comrade, the last needle had been aimed directly at Thea’s temple and killed her instantly. The Prince had killed two of their members while sustaining very little damage on its end. Grim was finally making it back to the fight but by the expression on his face it was obvious what he had been thinking.

Despair. The fight is over.

Losing two people who you trusted to watch you’re back had to be painful. No, it was much worse for Grim. As the tank of the party it was his role to take the brunt of the damage away from his teammates. It was more than likely he was blaming himself at this very second, that’s what any tank would be feeling if they failed to protect someone. Peluna wasn’t doing much better, her barrier’s weren’t strong enough to defend against the strength of the needles and couldn’t save both of them. Cyrus was once again forced to face the facts.

He wasn’t strong enough.

Again.

Was this how it was always going to be? Where he couldn’t protect the things he wanted to protect. That’s the way the pieces would fall if he couldn’t kill this insect here and now before he lost Peluna too. Everyone had been counting on his strength to defeat the Prince, he let two people down already, there wouldn’t be more.

His mind was made up, there was no way Cyrus would let the ant target Peluna next or he’d probably just give up. Steeling his mind and actively choosing to ignore the screaming in his mind that told him to run away, he ran at his prey once more. The Prince formed several needles over its body that shot out with lethal intent. Thankfully, Cyrus was faster than his comrades and weaved around the deadly flying spikes with precision, not even a single cut on his body.

The Prince as it turned out, had been anticipating such a reaction and had its next attack ready to go. Two aura balls shot out from its mandibles one after the other, the first one was just enough distance to dodge to the side out of the way of. The second one… there was little chance of that happening. Internally, Cyrus gulped. There was no way he would be able to take this hit and get back into the fight, the last aura ball had nearly taken him out. The second aura ball exploded right in front of his body.

Cyrus was not the one who got hit.

He only got a flash view of Grim’s smug face as he went flying backwards after taking the hit, his armor was cracked in several places from the aura ball as he went flying. However, there was no blood from the impact and an audible groan of pain could be heard from his downed form. Pain was good in this case, pain meant he was alive. The Prince had not at all been expecting a sacrifice play as it made to move backwards and get some distance between itself and Cyrus.

As if he was going to let that happen. Throwing all reason to the wind, he grabbed the mandible and nearly impaled his hand on its spiky teeth to maintain a solid grip. No matter how hard the Prince thrashed he was never going to let go, or he’d probably just die anyways. There was no time for technique and less time to sit still, instead he chose to just stab his rapier down into the head of the ant as many times as he could. What better option was there?

He was sure there were probably better ones, but he was too far gone to stop what he was doing. Each stab cracked the armor on the Princes head more and more, making it look instead like ice melting on a lake and tearing apart. The ant was not taking this lying down, but no attack was enough to throw the determined man off its face. Instead, it became the subject to repeated poking by a needle that was never meant to puncture its armor. Unfortunately for the ant, a dozen jabs in the same place with Void magic was more than enough to break the armor on its head. The pieces shattered apart like glass and a space on its skull became bare and ripe for the stabbing. Cyrus felt his sword finally go the distance he wanted it, the blade sinking into the head of the Prince. Even with a high-level monster, the same can always be said about any creature. Take out the head.

The Prince slumped unceremoniously to the ground. Dead.

Cyrus fell to the ground shortly after, his vision was finally clearing up and no longer tunneled but the world still felt blurry. Tilting his head back, he noticed Peluna helping the limping Grim over to the spot he was laying. All he could do was give a tired wave at the two comrades who survived the encounter with him and let out a sigh of relief. Peluna was also live, that’s what mattered.

As they walked over and he regained his bearings, Cyrus opened his notification window and ignored the dozens of warrior kills.

* Black Ant Prince – Level 75 killed. Experience awarded*

*Black Ant Royal Guard – Level 48 killed. Experience awarded*

*Level up to 44! – Free points awarded*

…

*Level up to 48! – Free points awarded*

*Title: Boss Clear – Killed a boss level monster. +10 Strength*

*System Update: The Ant Prince: #%#^& is slain. Mandibles of the Prince have been awarded in the inventory of the one who finished the kill. The Prince was building an army at the discretion of a dungeon Lord. The Lord is now aware of your existence. You are being watched.*

That wasn’t ominous in the slightest. The joyful feeling from the rewards of leveling up were gone while reading the System update. So in other words, he was being spied on by some much stronger being. The Prince was already far too strong of an opponent to fight, let alone some Lord that’s able to command a boss level monster. Nonetheless, the rewards were good and the levels brought him near the bottleneck of level 50. With these levels, he had 39 Free points in his tank. The issue was, at the beginning he wanted to mostly focus on Dexterity and some strength but his weaknesses from doing so were becoming all the more evident.

Intelligence would affect the strength of his magic, which he needed more of. Constitution would help his body absorb attacks, like the aura ball which put him out of commission in one shot. His thinking had been far too narrow, the allocation of his free points were far more critical than he had taken them far. Being too careless was going to get him killed sooner rather than later. His intelligence needed a boost before anything, so he put 20 free points into that stat first. The other 14 free points all went into constitution, the aura ball had been an eye opener for him. There was no problem with needing to be healed, but after only a single hit represented a major flaw. Even if the enemy had been 30 levels higher than him and a class above.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Name: Cyrus Rainer

Race: Outsider

Level: 48

Class: Avenger - Epic

Titles: Beginner, First steps, Survived the Void, Herb Lover, Slayer, Defiance, Champion Slayer, Leviathan Slayer, King Slayer, Boss Clear

Strength: 196

Dexterity: 159

Constitution: 163

Intelligence: 103

Charisma: 18

Luck: 38

Free Points: 0

Overall, the stat tree didn’t look all that bad. If it weren’t for all the strength and toughness he gained from his titles, this fight would have gone an entirely different direction. Once again Albus had inadvertently saved the day without being here. Something told him that the robed warrior had knew these boons would turn out to be fruitful.

At this point, Grim and Peluna reached his comfortable position and sat down next to him. Peluna’s worried expression coming into view so he simply gave her a thumbs up. She didn’t have nearly enough magic to heal one of them let alone both so they would have to wait and recover for a little while. With the Prince dead, there were no ants that were going to challenge them anyways so it was relatively safe for the time being.

Adjusting himself, Cyrus picked up upper half off the ground and leaned back against the large body of the Prince, like the back half of a bench. It wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as one might’ve thought, with exception to much of the blood covering the ground and the body. That was the least of his worries though, the adrenaline was finally wearing off and the full weight of the battle would begin to take comfort in his heart.

Grim must’ve already been feeling that weight because his expression was… well, grim. Not that he couldn’t understand, Cyrus knew well enough what it felt like to lose someone close to you. Words were never going to be his strong suit; his Charisma was low for a damn good reason and would stay that way. There were exceptions that could be made though, and this was one of them.

“This wasn’t your fault Grim; we were outmatched.”

The look in Grim’s eyes revealed more words than needed to be said. He was feeling the same way Cyrus felt, weak and cowardly. “We met at the Guild Hall a couple of weeks ago, hit it off really well, figured we’d make it big together. Seems pretty silly now, especially watching you two fight together, hell of a team.”

The compliment didn’t feel right at the time, it was true that him and Peluna were pretty good at working together, but the loss of two comrades was still fresh on their minds. Brummel and Thea, just another two names that would be added to the never-ending list of deaths in the dungeon. At least these two died to monsters rather than fellow humans.

“We can only be a two-person team for so long… what do you think about staying with us?” Peluna asks Grim, looking at the tank with a sad expression. She knew how hard it was to lose teammates and it wasn’t something easy to overcome.

Grim opened his mouth to answer but was halted by Cyrus putting his hand up to stop him. “Before you answer, you should know what you’d be getting into. We have more than just a party going on here.”

Grim was more than confused by that, what more could there be to joining a party? It was all questing and leveling up. Whatever it was, it couldn’t possibly be as bad as Cyrus had made it sound.

On the bright side, it wasn’t as bad as Cyrus had made it sound.

On the downside, it was far worse than what Grim had been expecting. What he expected was some secret or religion that the pair might’ve been adhering too. At worst they were a part of a cult or something. Those answers would have been much better than this, their mission to eliminate the imposter King Kyro. The strongest swordsman in the Empire. After they were literally almost butchered by an oversized insect. The worst part was, these two were totally serious about it.

They hadn’t just told him about their mission though, they gave him a little backstory about the revenge Cyrus had planned as well on Serence and the Guild Master. Far more deep-seated hatred seeped out of Cyrus than he had been ready for when they got to that subject. Much to his surprise, their levels weren’t nearly as high as he had been expecting either. Considering the battle their party just had and the abilities they put on showcase, he was shocked that they weren’t much higher.

Not that he was complaining or anything, who would be bothered by having strong allies? Normally someone might take the time to think long and hard about this sort of offer, but he wasn’t most people. Grim had a simple mindset, these two adventurers saved his life and were willing to take him in. So who was he to deny what they were aiming for?

Hell, if they accomplished anything that big they’d be able to take over the whole damn Empire. Talking about aiming your sights on the highest mountain! That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to ask questions, after all he had his own goal as well. When becoming an adventurer, you admitted to having a desire, a goal in mind. Grim was no different in that aspect.

“Where does all this end? Like are we going to just go and kill these people?” Grim clarified, waiting to hear some grand plan.

“Yes.”

“Yes? That’s it.”

“Why make it complicated? Revenge is that simple, kill the people who wronged you.”

Grim noticed Peluna wincing at the cold and simple responses. He took note that she clearly didn’t approve of his path for revenge and blood but she chose not to comment on it either. While he wasn’t averse to the simple solution Cyrus was offering, splattering someone in the middle of the street was still not an option. That was one way to get yourself killed.

He was also pretty surprised that Peluna was able to handle being around someone like Cyrus, the man was pretty cold when it came to killing. His aura wasn’t anything to scoff at either; while it wasn’t drastically overpowering there was plenty of fury and bloodlust that he made no attempt to hide. Whatever their relationship was, she must understand his feelings on some level to not be bothered by it due to her kind nature.

They seemed like a nice party even with those faults. Based on how they jumped in to save each other without hesitation, even at the risk of their own lives, there had to be a strong bond. Not many parties would act like that, instead choosing to save themselves over fighting for others. Cyrus could have easily grabbed Peluna and left him and the others to fend against the Prince as bait, but he didn’t. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to join a party like this, where the members would defend each other with their own lives.

“There’s only one thing I want in return. I need money to pay for meals for my family. They’re not wealthy, so I try and take care of them.” Grim had been expecting some contemplation from the pair but they didn’t look all that put off by the request.

“That’s it? I mean sure, meals aren’t even that expensive anyways.” Cyrus responded to the request, Peluna also seemed on board as she was nodding her own agreement.

“Are you sure? I mean, it could be a couple of gold coins at a time to ensure they’ll last a while…”

What Grim didn’t know, was that Cyrus had access to his own garden of herbs, so money wasn’t all that much of a concern for him. Meaning he could pay off those meals for a while, he still had 8 gold coins and 15 silvers from the last time he paid a visit to the alchemist. It wasn’t a lot, but some gold was better than no gold as the saying goes. Not that there actually was a saying.

Once again, Cyrus interrupted him before he could get any farther. “I’m not all that concerned about it, whatever expenses your family has can be taken care of.”

“We’ll both chip in! Or I’ll make Cyrus empty his pockets for you, so no worries Grim!” Peluna butt in cheerfully, easing the tension in the group with her gentle atmosphere. Grim felt far more at ease than he was expecting, knowing that he found a party that might help him take care of his family was a big weight of his shoulders. He hadn’t had a stable childhood and wanted to help his parents retire given how hard they worked to give him whatever they could. It wasn’t an easy task, but it was his goal. If traveling with this party could help him accomplish that goal, then he was more than happy to give whatever strength he could to them. Cyrus and Peluna seemed pretty plushy, so he knew from this fight that having someone to draw the attention would be good for them.

“If that’s the case, how could I possibly refuse? I look forward to working with you both!” With their newfound party member locked in, the first thing he did was crush them.