30 To Make A Choice

Right after add killed the runaway commander of the enemies, the familiar blue notification screens appeared before his eyes.

[Ding! Mandatory Mission :Plight of the Elves (2), Completed!]

[Ding! Obtained 7,000 Exp. and 3,500 CP as mission rewards.]

[Ding! Obtained 20,000 Exp. And 10,000CPas final rewards.]

[Ding! You have levelled up!]

Although it was not comparable to the bulk of Exp. he had obtained by killing the humans, it was still a lot. But before looking into it, he did a thorough inspection of the area ensuring he had not left any danger unchecked. Killing the Empire's soldiers was no joke. The empire would surely get to know about the deaths of so many of its soldiers, and would surely send an even larger force in searchof the perpetrators. Although the Elves didn't actually kill these soldiers, but the fact that they died in pursuit of Elves was undeniable. So the Elves' problems would only continue to increase from henceforth. If possible Add would not have killed so many soldiers but evaded them, but the situation, didn't allow him to do that.

(…..Whatever, I will have to deal with things as they come…..for now….)

He cast one last look at the dead bodies and then returned to where Anna and the others were hiding. Once he got closer to them he saw all of them averting their gazes. Though she tried to hide it, but even Anna who was the most courageous, seemed scared, while the other three had pale faces. Vorn was trembling, having witnessed the one sided massacre this young human boy had caused. Add had shown no mercy and with his strange weapons and what looked like some strange magic, killed the human soldiers ruthlessly. He could still see arms, heads, innards, and mutilated bodies lying around. Elves were a peaceful race by nature and seeing all this almost made him puke. Add noticed their reactions easily.

"It seems that you all do not approve of my ways….." he suddenly spoke, putting the elves in a tough spot.

"W-Well….."

Anna tried to say something but could not find the words. Add shook his head lightly and continued;

"Well too bad, but this is reality, not some story where things like death and war appear clean. You have to finish your enemy in the fastest and most efficient way you can, needles honour and mercy would only cause your downfall."

They had no words o refute with. Indeed if Add had not helped them, they would, at best be dead, or worse become slaves. His methods were bloody but they solved their immediate problems just fine. Anna now knew well just how terrifying he could be. She had seen him slaughter the bandits and now massacre these soldiers even more cruelly. She felt glad that he wasn't their enemy or the Elves would be in for extinction.

"What about those corpses….?" Vorn asked in a quivering voice.

"Just leave them be, we don't have time to wasteon them…" Add replied dully, there was no need to take care of corpses. In Add's eyes these people who were enslaving and killing the elves for their vile purposes, were not soldiers, but heathens. It was the duty of a soldier to honour dead soldiers, no matter which ever side they were from, but these people who were worse than animals, deserved no respect. It would be fitting for their remains to be eaten by stray animals. As a soldier Add had his own conscience different from normal people. He kept his job above anything else, and to him, a soldier was to be a patriot who protected his motherland, not a vigilante who did crimes on innocent people, and used his strength to fulfil his vile needs. As such he felt disgusted and hatred towards these humans which, to the Elves was clear despite his expressionless face.

"Then let's move on….Lily and the others must be worried for us….." Anna tried breaking the ice.

Add nodded and began walking towards the Elves' camp while the rest quietly followed. He took a look at his stats again. During these events he had levelled up a total of 7 times up to level 29, was just a little Exp. away from level 30. He now had 14 skill points and 14 stat points as well.On the way back to the elven camp, the atmosphere was eerily silent. The four elves were following Add who was busy checking for any skills he could use. This human had totally turned their common sense upside down. Though there were humans who were even capable of destructing entire cities, such people rarely visited such remote regions, and the ways of Add were a complete mystery to them. The boy, however was busy adjusting his stats.

After looking at his status, Add could not help but feel somewhat regretful, that he didn't level up to 30 this time around. Then he would have extra 5 skill and stat points to spare.

(If only those useless soldiers gave some more Exp…..)

He had such thoughts in his head.

He added 2 points to vitality, 6 into agility, 2 into stamina, 2 in endurance, 1 in intelligence and the last in wisdom. As for his skillpoints, he raised [Body Strengthening], [Perception], [Accelerated Healing] and [Agility Enhancement]to lv. 10 each. These skills had reached the final level of basic rank, and to level them up into Intermediate Rank, it would take 2 skill points every level. Add invested the last remaining skill point into levelling [Basic Two Handed Sword Mastery] to lv. 2.

He then looked into his CP, he had 68,500 cp now, which was a lot. He really had made a good profit this time.

(Lets buy a defensive skill….)

He already had good offensive abilities, but his defence was not on par with thatyet, his standard combat gear could protect him from bullets, but it could not protect him from the dangerous monsters that roamed in this world, it was never designed for that purpose. So he needed something more defensive and more dependable. He considered buying some magical armours the shop had, however they were hundreds of thousands of CP, so he had to abandon that idea. The skills however were cheaper, but they had to be upgraded with skill points. But since he was tight on budget, Add decided to buy a defensive skill. After going through the skill trees, he found one to his liking.

Skill : [Stone Body (Passive)]

Description : increases the body`sdefence by a certain amount. The effect of the skill is proportional to its level and when maxed, the body has stone like defence.

Price : 10,000 CP

Although the skill was not very flashy, and had a very large price tag, given its functions, it was well worthy of the price. Further, it could evolved after it reached lv. 10 and then the defence of the body would also increase even more. It suited add who didn't want to wear flashy armour or similar equipment.After that he bought some more grenades and ammunition for his guns to refill his stock, and left aside with 50,000 CP as a reserve.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Status :

Name : Add

Race : Human

HP : 700/700

MP : N/A (Locked)

Level : 29 | Experience Required : 11052/32863

Class : Firearms Master

Subclass : N/A

Title : Hunter

Equipment :

M20-A Semiautomatic Pistol (Grade – Normal, Rank – Middle Tier)

Standard Combat Gear (Set) (Grade – Rare, Rank – Low Tier)

KM777-XM Combat Knife (Grade – Rare, Rank – Low Tier)

PKPPecheneg64P1 – NM General Purpose Machine Gun (Grade – Unique, Rank –Low Tier)

Skills :

[Basic Unarmed Combat Mastery (Passive)Lv.3]

[Basic Body Strengthening (Passive)Lv.10]

[Basic Knife Mastery (Passive)Lv.5]

[Basic Accelerated Healing (Passive) Lv.10]

[Perception (Passive) Lv.10]

[Night Vision (Passive) (Max)]

[Firearms Mastery (Max)]

[Basic Agility Enhancement Lv.10(Passive)]

[Basic Clear Vision Lv.4 (Passive)]

[Basic Sword Skills Lv.5 (Passive)]

[Basic Two-Handed Sword Mastery Lv.2]

[Basic Katana Skills Lv.5 (Passive)]

Special Skills :

[Calm Mind (Passive) (Max)]

[Imaginary Time (Passive) Lv.1]

[Blood For Blood (Passive) (Max)]

[Contract (Max)]

Credit Points : 50,000

ATTRIBUTES :

Vitality : 12

Strength : 24

Agility : 20

Endurance : 14

Intelligence : 7

Wisdom : 8

Stamina : 12

Charm :5

Magic Aptitude : N/A (Locked)

Stat Points : 0

Skill Points : 0

Evaluation :A warrior who doesn't blink while taking lives. His cruelty knows no bounds.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Watching Add who was staying silent, Anna thought of talking to him, but could not exactly find any words to say, she was never the chatty type herself. To her Add seemed to be always in his own pace, and initiating a meaningful conversation with this strange human was too high a hurdle for her. So the group kept moving in silence. By the time the group reached the camp of the Elves, Lily(Lilliana) was waiting very anxiously for the past few hours. She was resting in her tent, waiting for Anna and the others to return.

Although she had decided to trust Add, a human, a part of her heart was still worried. Questions like "What if it is a trap set by humans?", "What if Add hurt Anna and the others", "What if they were harmed by the humans before being able to do anything?"...kept appearing in her mind. Although Add was strong and he had said that he would take care of the matter, she didn't believe that him alone would be able to deal with such a large group of humans. As her heart was beating wildly in tension she heard commotion from outside.

"Have they already attacked!?"

Fearing for the worst she ran out.

* * * * *

As soon as Add, Anna and the Elves reached back in the camp, the other Elves at the camp, who spotted them immediately surrounded the group. Although they were still wary of Add, they were more eager to know what happened to the humans. They began showering the group with questions, like "Are the humans coming?", "How many are they in number ?", "Where will we run?" etc, one after the other making Anna, Vorn and the other two Elves quite awkward, while the main perpetrator, a human boy, was as expressionless as ever. Add walked away from the crowd, finding a tree to sit under and began organizing his weapons and ammunition.

"Anna you are back!?"

A figure rushed towards Anna when she was trying to calm the panicked elves. Lily hugged Anna tightly, almost startling the latter.After a few moments, Lily let her go and worriedly gazed at her best friend who was like a family to her. Seeing Anna unhurtand safe, her violently beating heart was relieved, but the next instant, she began worrying about the attack by the humans. As if understanding her worries Anna gave a wry smile. Then turning to the other elves, she spoke;-

"Everyone Please Listen! The humans will not be attacking anytime soon now! We are safe!"

This caused gasps of aw and surprise among the Elves.

"Miss Anna are you telling the truth ?" An Elven lady asked as she held her young boy close.

Anna smiled and nodded;

"It is true! The humans have been deal with! Mr Add here has dealt with the humans as he promised. Everyone can relax now, we are no longer in danger…."

Even then many Elves were doubtful. They looked at Add who was busy fiddling with his guns, and felt conflicted. To trust a human, who had harmed the Elven Race so much was a very hard task. Only after Anna, Vorn and the others repeatedly assured them, did the crowd disperse. However , they did not speak about his methods as it would undoubtedly scare them. Vorn and the other two Elves also left to do their respective works, while Anna followed Lilly into her tent. Anna then began describing in detail what exactly the situation was.

She told Lily, how the empire of Reinglief, was now actively hunting Elves, and that they had send over 200 soldiers this time. Lily's gaze hardened as she heard the situation in detail. Things were very bad for the Elves now. With the massive empire directly against them, they were in serious trouble. Then Ana began speaking in detail, about how Add had saved them all this time. From his strange gimmicks and weapons, to their lethality and destructibility as well as how he massacred his fellow humans in cold blood like killing pigs, not batting an eye.

"It was….as if...as if he thought nothing of killing so many people…his face was expressionless all the time….Lily…I I cannot explain this…..I have seen people kill people before, but…..Add…he scares me…it is as if he doesn't care of life,…..I know the humans were here to kill us….but….i don't know why ….. Add gives the feeling of being much more dangerous….."

This left Lily wide eyed. When she heard how mangled and mutilated the bodies had become, a cold shiver ran down her spine.She was almost unable to believe all this. How could a human slaughter his own kin so cruelly, not leaving a single one alive, justfor a group of Elves he had met a little while back. Add had dealt with such a force all alone, and annihilated them all. Lily well understood

The Elves didn't use human standards ofhowever, ifcomparing, while using her [Mana Equip], Anna was almost as strong as a Rank 3 warrior, and most of the other Elves were as strong as Rank 2 warriors. This was because most of the Elves, including Lily herself used Nature and wind magic, and very few of them went to become a warrior. As such their Physical strength as a whole fell short of humans. Also most of the strong Elves of their village had died in the earlier attacks on them. Even if all of the thirty something, of them banded together fighting with no care for their lives, she didn't think they could kill even 50 humans, much less 250. This clearly showed how strong and dangerous Add was, if he so decided to turn against them, they would be helpless, in fact she estimated that Add wouldn't be afraid even if he faced off against a 1000 humans and and he would have no qualms, slaughtering them all. It was a miracle that such a person had chose to help them.

"Anna…I want sometime alone…..I have to think what we should do from here on out…..ah and prepare a shelter for Mr. Add he has done such a big favour to us… "

She told her best friend and the later immediately understood. She patted her shoulder and smiled.

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Lily….. alright take some rest, I will take care of the other matters...."

After Anna left, Lily began seriously considering her options. She had few paths to take from here on out. Now that Reingleif was against them, they had no choice but to go deeper into the forest of Waldesten, if they wanted to avoid being killed by the royal army or enslaved. However if they went any deeper, the various deadly beasts that dwelled in the forests would kill them. These beasts were so strong and deadly, that the humans had left Waldesten to its own only because of the threat of these beasts. However, staying here was also not an option anymore andthough she knew of some large Elven towns nearby, which would definitely provide them shelter, getting to them was a challenge because o these beasts.

"If only Mr. Add helped us reach….."

The closest town as per her knowledge was over200 Tõr(over 160 kilometres), away from their current location. The path was filed with viscous beasts and dense forest terrain making it extremely dangerous to travel, especially for them who had no notable military force.themoment she had this thought, she shook her head. Add had already helped them a lot, without asking for anything. And the beasts living in the forest were much stronger than the humans he had defeated, and they were also countless in number. Asking him to risk his life for them was not only being shameless, but also ungrateful.She tried thinking of some other solution, but even after thinking a lot, she could not find any. Everywhere seemed to be a dead end for her...

Finally, after hours of thinking, she decidedto bet her hopes on a gamble. For the safety of her people, she decided to do something which she would never have imagined she could do.

"But this is the only way now…..we will die either way, I can only place my hopes on this.'

With a resolute heart, she proceeded to do what she had decided in her heart.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

On the other side, Add was still fiddling with his guns, although he had heard of, and seen these guns in his previous life, he hadn't had much chance to operate them. So he decide to familiarize himself with those guns. He opened up the various guns starting from the AK 47 to the PKP Pecheneg, right down to their nuts and bolts and then reassembled them, doing this a few times helped him get acquainted with each gun and how each one worked. Some Elves watched his antics from a distance, not knowing what those weird things were. He then began counting and organizing the various types of ammo he had. From the .45 APC to the beastly .50 BMG, Add had amassed a varied arsenal, each suited for different jobs.He now had around 100 rounds for the M20-A,500 rounds for the AK, 200 for the AX338, 500 for the HK417A2, 100 for the Barrett M107A2 and 400 for the PKP. He also had ten Type-201 HE grenades. All in all, Add was sure that he was set for the coming days.

Just as he was finishing his work, Vorn walked up to him. The Young Elf, had been waiting for him to finish whatever he was doing, while occasionally taking curious glances at the strange weapons, he had seen firsthand, how deadly this strange things were. After Add finished, Vorn led him to a small hut nearby. It was made of a frame of manytree branches and covered with leaves. The elves were experts at using natural materials to make their homes. Although the hut was small and crude, and it had a crude door made of branches and leaves, giving some privacy. Also,it had a cushion of leaves to sleep on and protected from wind and rain. Vorn apologised for the lack of hospitality but Add never minded such petty details. He had slept in rain, in mud, crawled in sewers and passed his days beside rotting corpses in trenches, a hut like this was more than enough. After showing him the hut, Vorn left, Anna also visited him later for some small talk and then left.

Around midnight, when all the elves excepta few sentries were sleeping, there was a soft knocking on the door of his hut. Add who hadn't slept and was busy wrestling with the system, raised a brow.

"Who is it at this time?"

As he went and opened the door, what grated him was an enchanting figure clad in a white silk dress.

"Mr. Add….that…..may I come in….?"

She asked shyly.

"Huh?"

And that was the only response he could utter.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _