Chapter 175: Three beer, please
🕑 Added 2024-08-08 23:39:26 +0000 UTCAuthor's Note: Believe it or not, I scraped a whole chapter because I got a better idea and wrote this whole thing today. Have fun!
...
Like always, the military outpost to the east was joyful and somewhat depressive. Everyone was having a grand time drinking their boredom away since they were stuck in an unfulfilling position of guarding an uneventful border, which had no engagements for at least a decade—a great reason to let loose.
This conduct was only accepted at such places for the previously mentioned reasons, as it would otherwise lead to worse situations. However, it also meant that many knew this and engaged in various pleasures, abusing the inofficially allowed conduct since nobody looked too closely into it.
It was loud, with many wandering casually through the area, from one massive tent to another—soldiers and their support staff. The smaller tents were there for veterans who had already served for more than five years or higher-ranked personnel, while the larger ones were either the kitchen, barracks, or the commander's private quarters.
Usually, not many stayed outside for long as it was windy since they were close to a valley, but this evening was an exception as it was very cozy. Many strolled around the area while others enjoyed their drink under the moon. However, sometimes, others like to overdo it.
A slightly unsteady djinn, a low-rank soldier, walked through the area, seemingly unprofessional even for this place. He wore a wrinkled uniform that barely fit, held an almost empty bottle of hard liquor in his hands, and mumbled nonsense—smiling and enjoying his buzz. As such, nobody even tried to come close to him, but the next day, he would probably be punished for going overboard.
Stumbling and tumbling, he whistled a tune, seemingly happy, having a great time in this boring outpost where nothing happened. However, when he walked past a smaller tent, a hand suddenly reached from within, pulling him inside—he was shocked, and only a gurgle was left as he disappeared.
After a moment, muffled cries and screams came from within the tent, but William, who walked beside it, ignored it, not wanting to do anything with it.
'A bunch of weirdos.'
Fortunately, his uniform fit somewhat, but because it was dirty and knitted when he took it from the soldier he killed before, he took the time to make it look orderly and clean before coming here, which appeared to be a mistake—many people looked at him as if he was the weirdo.
'I may overthought a little.'
Because of his orderly nature, they thought of William as some kind of high-ranking member, but after looking closer, they most likely corrected the thought to an overeager youth—a notion he was okay with.
Fortunately, because of the Jorsh's and Petra's prior information collection, William knew that the camp often switched soldiers when the heat became unbearable, getting newbies here while the veterans were on leave—it was pretty hot.
Other than that, there was a lot of squabble in the letters, with all kinds of Essence Alliance clans trying to put some promising children into those outposts, basically halting their progress and making it impossible to gain any merits for many years.
All the islands beside the Moorgrelian territory were considered useless, and nobody even tried to develop them, so this area became basically abandoned.
The reason was as simple as stupid: All of them feared that by developing their territory, they could also elate other clans, who could become their enemy as they would amass power.
As such, there were only a few small towns and a bigger one far to the north on this island. The Whirl clan invested the most resources into the island, while the Uru clan provided only some craftsmen.
'Well, I hope nobody would want to put their resources into this to fight some rogue group with deadly weapons.'
Their camp predicted that those clans wouldn't put too many resources into fighting them and see that they created a border toward the beast-kin as something positive.
'Before that, we would need to find the one who found the dun...'
However, before thinking further, he was stopped by someone he considered a small girl. She had a weirdly shaped sword on her back, wavery and looking like it would only be used for ceremonies.
She wore an adult-like uniform, a half-plate with bluish leather underneath it, and a beautiful symbol engraved in the middle of her chestplate, showing a sea monster destroying ships.
'Something like a noble... damn.'
It glowed bluishly, and because of his newly acquired [Mana Sense], he knew it was enchanted and that the material guided the mana almost perfectly through all the engravings—it was high quality.
In comparison, his uniform was mostly cheap linen, with a little brownish and blue dye mixed into it. Soldiers of his rank were clearly considered meat shields, the ones who would throw themselves before an enemy so others wouldn't get their clothes dirty—there was a clear rank difference.
"I ##### ### you ####? Who ### apple ### you?"
William suppressed a smile, listening to a child speaking to him commandingly, which reminded him of Alexander. Still, he quickly organized his thoughts and tried to act like a bumbling moron.
He straightened up, nodding and acting overly nervous. He saluted with his fist, knuckled up, banging against his heart while the other went behind his back.
"I #####—" She glared into his eyes, more intense, "—#### ### apple, you ### #### ####?!"
As she became angrier, William thought she had discovered who he was but quickly denied it. He used make-up to make his skin appear a little bluish and stole the perfume from the guard, using it excessively.
'Fine! Let's keep up the act.'
William straightened even more, which made her angrier. She came close to him and stared as if he hid something—acting was hard. For now, he tried to play some newbie who was just overly stressed and nervous. He heavily sweated and trembled a little to come over as such, trying to hold up the act.
'Now move, you little shit. I don't have all day time!'
William had to prepare, as they would all attack in around an hour. He needed to plant all the cute little devices of death, preparing for the assault. Fortunately, as if a divine being had listened to him, she sighed and waved him away, walking to an enormous tent in the middle of the outpost.
'At last!'
After she was far away, he started to walk again, still trying to act like a moron, frightened and trembling like a baby chick. However, there were also some positives, as nobody wanted to come close to him, eying him as if he were dead, since he was, what he assumed, on the blacklist of whoever it was.
For now, he wanted to analyze the overall structure of the outpost, thinking the best way to block all dead ends and kill them as fast as possible without letting anyone flee.
'Okay, so, it's not mu... woah!'
"Argh!"
The danger sense he had developed over the years rang in his mind, forcing him to squat down immediately—an overly confusing feeling descended over him as to why he did it.
However, it became apparent when a wobbly line of bluish energy flew over his head, almost cutting through another soldier, who barely evaded death.
'This little shit!'
William dashed forward, not wanting to engage in any battle with some weird nobility, and would instead use the weapons he got from afar as planned—a terrible mistake that he even tried to play spy.
"Haha! Didn't I kill more than a dozen of you Vulcanic-Assassin Clan motherfuckers?! Didn't know you even forget our salute!"
William was a little confused since she spoke a weird dialect of the beast-kin language, which was in itself a dialect of the human language. However, when he talked with the fire-djinn sisters, complementing their pronunciation, he suddenly remembered that they mentioned particular dialects that came close to the beast-kin dialect.
'Hehe, let's play a little game!'
He remembered the clan names of the fire-djinn sisters and everything they told about them, with them having nothing to do with assassinations—he wanted to avoid hurting his allies if they were genuinely affiliated, which seemed not to be the case.
Stopping mid-dash, he turned around, opened his arms, and smiled, trying to copy the inflection of the little girl.
"Aw shucks, who'da thunk I'd get caught like that!"
The small girl stood with her sword drawn, ready to fight while commanding others and talking about him being one of those assassins. However, William didn't care as something else entirely entered his mind, as if lost but found in the deepest crevices.
'Isn't this... oh my!'
William's smile widened when he noticed who she was: one of the few who knew about the dungeon, and now, he could finish her. Better even, he could make it look like he was some weird fire-djinn clan assassin hired by who knows who, taking the blame away from Moorgrel, his camp, and most importantly, his little Master.
'Huh? I should act a little on edge—' He suddenly noticed how one of the soldiers suddenly tried to run to what looked like a coop, '—let's let him live; someone needs to spread the message that I am such a bad fire-djinn, hehe.'
With a flash, William appeared right in front of the soldier, immediately stabbing him with a knife right between his lungs, a somewhat risky area, but an attack one could survive. However, to make the poor soul appear dead, he used [Exhaustion], a divine skill of his which would suck out any stamina one had, making weaker ones immediately faint.
'Here they goes.'
Like that, the soldier fell to the ground, bleeding massively, but not dying, but such a thing could only William know. However, everyone else was rather distressed and overwhelmingly on alert, all weapons drawn and filled to the brim with the bit of energy they had, rough and disgusting. Still, there was one individual whose energy was beautiful and mesmerizing.
'Oh? Look at that. I actually thought that she was an asshole.'
The small girl was frightened, her hands shaky, and her stand somewhat rough, but her determination to protect her people was evident. She stood before her soldiers, not backing down and giving orders to encircle him.
"I see you are brave, but I thought you would use [Spear Arts], my dear Irisk?"
Her eyes opened wide, shocked and in disbelief, but she still tried to act brave, even forcing a smile.
"I see that my sister really wanted to get rid of me—" She switched her stance, unable to find the right way to attack since she was a spear user, something William knew from Jorsh's information, "—what else? Do you want to escalate the conflict with those animals again? You know how they are, these bloodthirsty beasts! Only I can deal with this wolf bitch!—" Her smile widened, "—your arsonists will be next, trust me."
Irisk wasn't lying. Moorgrelians had a knack for warfare, and their battles always ended in obliterating whoever attacked them. They aimed for a clear-cut ending without much discussion.
However, they were terrible at diplomacy because of their extreme behavior, which was clearly a somewhat instinctively canine thing to do—friends and allies were supported with every fiber of their bodies. At the same time, enemies were hunted down and exterminated.
As such, when the enemies found someone in Moorgrel with whom they could talk, it was seen as a miracle. Irisk seemed to know Marisia, which appeared to be a problem but actually played quite well into their hands.
If the camp could create an alliance with Moorgrel by helping them in any way possible, they would become unstoppable. For now, though, he needed to act, seeing how some of the more cowardly soldiers wanted to flee, possibly ruining his improvised plan.
"I think you underestimate who or how many want to actually kill you since you blabbed so openly about your little secret—" He pulled out three metallic balls while still trying to act more provokingly, "—you know, the little altar ~♪"
Irisk's eyes widened as panic contorted her expression into despair. She immediately looked around in distress at every soldier, but they were only confused and probably didn't even understand the language they spoke.
'Oh my, how fun!'
Information was his most essential resource, and he would try if he could get more of it through manipulation or other coercion methods. For someone like Irisk, who was already under immense pressure, it was always easy to make her more paranoid to get an honest reaction.
'Hm, but who else has the information about the dungeon?'
William tried to ascertain if Irisk had talked to someone else about the dungeon, and judging by her reaction, that seemed to be the case. Other than going by those encoded letters, there wasn't much else.
"You #####! ### him!—" She readied herself, her energy flowing into the sword sloppily, "—you will not leave alive!"
William shrugged and let a little bit of mana slip into a crack of one of the metal balls he held, "—We will see about that, my dear—" He threw it up in the air, "—Oh my, let's see how well you may find me inside a smokescreen!"
As the metallic ball started to glow, Irisk started to shout, and everyone started to glue their eyes to the weapon and William. However, he used the time as everyone ran to him, their weapons drawn and ready to finish him, to create a film over his eyes to darken his sight.
FOOM!
The explosion was small, but the whole area suddenly lightened up, as if the sun was before them, blinding everyone who looked in William's direction—a light explosion or, as his little Master liked to call it, a flashbang.
'What a disappointment.'
"###### ####### #####!"
"#### ##### ## ####!"
William was satisfied with the outstanding weapon, which worked too well, but not with the enemies, who were stunned and unable to see. This state made them panic, which led them to attack randomly and wildly, accidentally killing their comrades.
William sighed, drawing out his daggers and putting away the other metallic balls, obviously not needing them—with another step, he appeared behind the weakest soldier, cutting their head off.
It was apparent to him that they had little to no fighting experience other than through sparring—a useless way to cut teeth and prepare soldiers, which even the Moogrelians agreed as their soldiers would traverse dungeons, fight wild monsters or bandits when it came to fighting.
However, William also knew that beast-kin had exceptional instincts, which may not apply to djinns, who had very different strengths. Other than that, this place was clearly a punishment for the lowest of the low, with him better not comparing them to anyone else.
Clang!
After William killed two dozen Tier 1 soldiers easily, he wanted to get rid of Irisk, but as he tried to, she skillfully blocked, barely able to see through one eye, all reddish and tearing up.
"You bastard! You will pay—" William interrupted her, speaking normally, "—Sure thing, but for now, please die."
William's dagger glowed in a yellowish hue as it drank his energy. It did not want to stop, vibrating and cracking slightly—reaching the limit. He simply shot his energy forward, wanting to quickly end it by burning a hole into her chest.
'Huh... I didn't expect that.'
As his energy ray hit her sword, it sadly didn't melt away. Instead of disintegrating the metal, she just flew through half the outpost and crashed softly into the biggest tent—it was not spectacular and boring since she seemed to deflect part of his beam.
William sighed, pulling out another metallic ball, 'I hate nobles.'
Usually, it was straightforward. William was Tier 3; he should've just crushed her, a Tier 2, but she avoided having a hole in her chest because of her superior armor, weapons, and strange technique, which could partly redirect his energy.
There were many other reasons, like this environment, which weakened him. He was a somewhat unique djinn with a bizarre [Divine Acclimation], but even if he ignored that, his specialty wasn't combat-related.
"Well, at least I can use this—" Without much wait, he pulled a metallic ball out of his pouch and activated it, throwing it into the tent while trying to enrage Irisk, "—greet your other dead siblings ~♪"
BOOM!
This time, the metallic ball almost instantly exploded, with him immediately taking two corpses lying beside him, protecting himself from this vicious weapon—a splinter bomb.
After it exploded, thousands of needles would escape the ball and the tent, flying rapidly in every direction and killing every Tier 1 still hiding around the outpost. However, it was only good for surprise attacks since a bit of energy was enough to stop them, which, fortunately, nobody did.
When it ended, he threw the corpses to the side, them being penetrated by the needles, and walked casually to the tent, wanting to see what was left of Irisk, "Oh my, did you become a porcupine-kin... urgh!"
A weird bluish light came from the tent when he approached it, with him sensing immense killing intent and barely able to evade a spear, surrounded beautifully with energy, like water flowing around it.
"You fucking bastard! I will shred you into pieces!—" Her killing intent exploded, "—you killed my little brother! Die!"
William frowned, not liking it, but he would now take it seriously, as an angry blue djinn wanted to slice him into pieces because of a slight provocation.
"Oh, little girl, you are quite sturdy ~♪"
He jumped backward, trying to create some space so he could use the myriad of weapons he had. Still, Irisk immediately followed, her movements flowing impeccably into one another as if there were no interruptions—a beautiful dance in which every hit was dangerous.
'Argh! I can't believe I actually try to avoid her!'
Every attack felt hard to evade or block, with her spear tip flowing from trying to cut his neck off to seemingly his heart and to another limb without ever stopping—an indomitable but weirdly slow assault. It was as if she stopped his movements before he even started.
'This is getting dangerous—' While avoiding and parrying her spear attacks, he opened his pouch, '—time to use my strength.'
"Haha! Again, with those stupid artificer's toys? Do you have no honor?!"
William pulled out another metallic ball with a red shine, which Irisk immediately saw and split in two, smiling widely, thinking she stopped another one of his attacks, but it couldn't be further from the truth.
"What is this?!"
Irisk jumped away, but it was too late. When she split the metallic ball in half, red miasma escaped, encompassing the entire camp and creating another Kratikal.
"Are you crazy?! Do you really think I am... urgh? What the?!"
William was already counterattacking her, his strength far above what he had a moment before. He didn't reach his peak but still tripled all his attributes, with him becoming overwhelmingly powerful.
"Oh my! Did you know that I am quite the weird one ~♪"
There was no need to play anymore. William wanted to finish it as fast as possible, as the miasma would disappear in a few minutes. He used another divine skill, [Depletion], which made a mouth appear on his palm, drooling and snarling, needing food.
William pushed his palm forward, enveloped with a massive amount of reddish energy—the mouth opened wider, appearing as a projection before it, at least half a meter big, ready to feast on Irisk.
However, she was apparently more talented than assumed since she used a quirky technique. As if she became fluid itself, turning and contorting her body in the most impossible ways, she somehow managed to use another skill, counterattacking his divine skill.
"Why?! How?!"
She lost the struggle—a result everyone could have foreseen. Even though she did a fantastic job counterattacking, her strength plummeted. She struggled after the environment became overly toxic.
The mouth on his hand sucked every bit of energy away from her attack, incorporating it into his energy, making his hand glow in a beautiful blue with a reddish hue.
"It's quite a powerful attack, but how about this?"
Another ray escaped his palm, now much more intent and finely made—her spear melted as she tried to fight against it, immediately pulling it away. Still, because she became so much weaker, she didn't react fast enough, with her shoulder getting penetrated.
"Urgh! Fuck!"
William won. His [Divine Acclimation] was unique since he became the strongest in the most hostile environments, while every tree or patch of normal earth weakened him massively. Before letting the miasma out, he fought with -50% of his usual attributes, but now he had 150% since he created a little Kratikal, thanks to Narsiz.
For someone like Irisk, such an environment lowered her attributes, making the difference even more apparent.
"Are you giving up ~♪?"
William strolled toward her, seeing how she shivered since her shoulder was now infected with one of his other divine skills, [Desperation]. His energy would infect one's mind, making the victim hallucinate as if they were about to die or experiencing enormous pain.
"I will pay you double!"
Irisk fell, sitting on the ground and breathing heavily, barely able to endure the imaginary pain, but she still looked at him with hate, wanting to live at least another day.
"I have no desire for gold—" As he was about to draw a dagger, wanting to end her, he suddenly got an idea, "—say, what is it what you truly desire?"
He couldn't specify what it was, but he wanted to talk with her first. It was like a sensation in the back of his head, nagging constantly.
"Really? Desire? I want to live, you stupid bitch! I hate my siblings! I hate my parents! I hate my whole fucking family! Who the fuck is trying to kill a talent like me because of some stupid fucking seat! FUCK YOU ALL!"
Irisk broke down, crying. It was a sad sight of someone genuinely talented being wasted like that.
"I... heuk! I want another family... I—" She let go of her spear, hugging herself and pressing the wound on her shoulder as hard as possible, "—I don't want to die... heuk... why?! WHY?! WHY ALWAYS ME?! I DON'T WANT TO! NO!"
Her voice cracked, mumbling and hurting herself by pushing energy into the wound, making the wound larger. She was done with her life.
"Why... all I wanted from life was peace... who the fuck cares about merits—" She looked into William's eyes, desperation and determination; she wanted to live far away from those who wanted to see her dead, something he knew too well, but she almost lost it, slowly accepting her fate, "—please do it fast."
William walked behind her, smiling widely, "I hope you will like my little Master—" Before she could say or do anything, being confused, he knocked her out, "—because he always likes weirdos like you ~♪"
Comments
Wyatt Hilbert
I love the ending
