Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The man with the sword grinned and kept his blade pointed right at me.

"Real sorry we had to pick you kid, the boss would kill us if we didn't hit our monthly quota. I'd let you leave, but you've already seen my face. I can't let you run your mouth."

I stared him down with my sword held tight. My eyes were looking left and right spastically trying to see both men at once, but also scan my surroundings for any other threats.

"Don't even think about running either, we've seen your face too. We'll track ya down... how ever long it takes."

For an average family, 80 silver could last them half a year. To be honest, even a full year if you stretch it out far enough. Maybe I was in the wrong for flashing a full year's salary around in a rough part of town like this...

I didn't pay as much mind to the shorter man behind me. He was a bit shaky and handled his dagger poorly. I could tell he wasn't a very experienced fighter.

The swordsman on the other hand... He stared me down and I returned the favor with my own murderous glare. I could tell he was skilled with that battle worn sword, definitely not an amateur.

"Why don't you just hunt like the rest of us. You could easily make a living in the dungeons. Why rob people like me?"

He gritted his teeth.

"You don't know the first thing about the real world kid! I couldn't enter the dungeons if I wanted. I was blacklisted as a young kid for entering a D Class without authorization... the Hunters Association isn't very kind to people like me. We have to find other ways to work."

I'd heard of the strict dungeon laws, but never actually seen the result of a rule breaker...

Avery District must be full of rejects and thugs that don't fit into traditional dungeon diving culture for one reason or another...

Again, this is the life they chose. There is nothing I can say to persuade a peaceful interaction here.

It's fight or die...

"Hmmm. Well then. Bring it on."

I gripped my sword and eyed the man. We were peering into each other's souls. The fuse had already been lit, there was no putting it out now.

We both charged in at each other, swords held tight with intention to kill.

This is my first fight with a human being... but it doesn't feel much different... than a monster...

"CLANGGGGGGG"

Our steel met with a loud metallic clang.

"CLANGGGGGGG"The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñòv€l-B1n.

We both jumped back and countered perfectly, colliding steel swords again and again.

After this brief encounter we both jumped back. I watched him and he watched me. It seemed like a pretty even matchup, he had some solid sword skills.

"Not bad kid."

He snarled at me then charged back in.

"CLANGGGGGGGG"

Moments later both of their heads fell to the floor before they could even think to move.

The battle was over just like that...

I win.

I looked over my shoulders to check if there were any more threats.

The narrow alleyway was silent, I could hear nothing but a light breeze.

Then I saw it... hovering over the dead body of the man with a dagger...

The blue letters that shook me down to my core...

"......N-No way....."

[Use Absorption]

Skill: Inspect[Special Grade]

[YES][NO]

I stared at the text for a moment while my heart skipped a few beats. I couldn't believe my eyes...

I gulped and chose [YES].

I dropped to my knees.

The last 2 minutes played back in my head over and over like a movie.

I just killed two men...

I had to....

Who knows what would have happened if I didn't fight back... or even ran away... they said they'd come after me. Who knows, maybe their boss would have been brought into it.

After convincing myself I wasn't in the wrong here for well over 3 minutes straight I shook my head and came back to reality.

The fact here was that there were two dead thugs lying in the road and I was kneeling over them carrying a sword.

I examined the swordsman for a second and was surprised to see that same snake tattoo with the red eyes on his right hand. It must be their gang mark or something, best not to think much of it now.

I looked over both my shoulders again to make sure no one saw this brutal event take place. Then without hesitation I erupted in flames and incinerated the evidence of my crime.

I kicked the sword and dagger that were leftover into a nearby abandoned storefront and quickly evacuated the area.

10 minutes of walking and paranoid shoulder checking later I let out a huge sigh of relief. I was getting close to the village market.

"Sighhhhhhhhh"

I have another secret to keep from the world. Just when I thought my life was getting easy... I get thrown into an even bigger whirlwind of things to think about.