"KROOOOOAAAHHH!!"
Screams continued to rumble the ground, shaking the stones. Dust climbed its way to kick away the oxygen in the atmosphere.
"Shit.", Azal cursed in regret.
"Guys, there are at least twenty of them. You think we can handle it?"
"Yes.", Archehon replied.
Though 'Joker' was confident, the rest were silent.
"..."
"Azal..", Seth uttered his name.
"Yeah?", Azal responded.
"Stab!"
An arrow pierced through Azal's chest, making blood drip down his face, exiting his mouth.
"S-seth.. Wwwhyy?", Azal struggled to talk.
"Cause.."
He changed his tone.
"I felt like it~", Seth laughed.
His expression was a smile, no, an evil grin. He looked as if he enjoyed it.
"Drop!"
Azal's wide open eyes could be seen while his corpse laid on the ground with an arrow through his heart.
"Kekekekw.. Now, I just have to kill you two~"
"Oh wait. I don't have to do that. I can leave my friends over there to take care of it for me.", he showed the groups of kobolds.
Seth dropped a blue crystal that Archehon remembered seeing before.
'That's the teleportation crystal from this body's memories. Those didn't exist in my era, so he's trying to run away, huh?', Archehon thought.
'But I should be careful about that old man. I haven't seen how strong he really is.'
Archehon stepped back so that he was behind the old man.
"Stomp!", Seth tried to break the crystal with his feet but to no avail as the floor was the only thing he could see.
"What?"
"Sling!"
A string wrapped around the crystal and slung it back to the old man's hand.
"I don't think so..", the old man muttered.
"Haaa.."
"Old man.. don't beg for forgiveness later on."
Seth pushed himself back and fired an arrow that had a small green tip on its head.
"Zing!"
"Too predictable.", the old man taunted Seth.
The arrow was caught by Holmes while he kept the rest of his body, other than his arm, still.
"W-what?"
"Y-know.. You shouldn't really try to kill someone far stronger than yourself.", Holmes lectured to Seth.
Seth grabbed another green tipped arrow and launched it at the old man out of rage of being taught something.
"Shut uuuuppp!"
Every time he fired an arrow towards the old man, it would be received by Holmes.
"That should be enough time wasted. After all, the little kobolds are already here."
"Krooh!"
A kobold aimed to scratch the man's face but the bracelets attached to the knuckles of his hand ended up bursting the head open, causing a small but destructive fountain of blood.
"Kid-"
When the old man checked behind him, the Joker was nowhere to be seen.
"He left, huh?"
While he was distracted by the disappearance of Archehon, Seth was furious,
"Don't ignore me!!"
"Bliiiiinnnnggg.."
A blinding light was released from the old man. It continued for another ten seconds,
"U-uh, uaaaahhhhh!!"
Seth screamed out of pain since his eye pupils went white. Blinded. Unable to see anything.
"M-my eyes.. uhhh.."
The old man sped up and punched through every other kobold that was there and after he finished the little stretching excercise, he talked to the disabled Seth.
"I can return you to normal and stop the pain. All you have to do is answer a few questions. You can do that, right?"
"A-ah.. y-yes..", he responded unable to take the pain.
"Number one. Which villain organisation are you from?"
"N-noxus.."
"Thanks, Number two. What is their purpose currently?"
"T-to.. Aauuuhhhh..", blood tears streamed down his face when he tried to answer the question, with foam exiting his mouth.
"Fall."
"Tsk, they knew.", Holmes clicked his tongue in disappointment.
"Anyways, that kid ran away and I'm genuinely curious about why that kid hid his age.", he grinned.
"Oh well.. I'll get to see him later I guess."
* * *
The same reception desk Archehon had been to before. The same building of the mercenary organisation. He stood in front of the desk while the receptionist's eyes trembled out of shock.
"Oh my goodness.. they all died?", the receptionist staggered.
"Yes, but the old man called 'Holmes' is still alive. He'll tell you the details when he arrives."
"Ah.. okay sir. We will compensate the two dead members families.", she transitioned back to her professional attitude.
"Bye sir.", the receptionist bowed down in respect.
"Yeah.."
"Hoooo.."
'My instincts were right. It was the right decision to run away from that old man.', he thought.
'But I don't get why someone as strong as himself would take such a low ranking quest. I get that there was a villain hiding amongst mercenaries, but couldn't they have sent a weaker person to catch him?'
While Archehon was in deep thought, he had already walked to the commission board.
"I guess I'll have to start from the bottom again."
'Defeat the Beast: Goblin (10). Reward: 5 bronze coins. Any rank allowed.'
"Let's do this."
* * *
Almost 3 months have passed since Archehon joined the mercenary organisation.
"Stomp!"
A medium sized golem stomped on the spot Archehon was in. But luckily he had dodged in time.
"Golems sure are predictable.."
"Hmph!"
Archehon threw his spear at the golems core while other variants continued to launch its detachable arms at him.
"Dodge! Dodge. Dodge.", he dodged it all.
"Slash!"
He performed a cutting slash cutting all three of the golems cores while coating his spear's head in a blue aura.
"Phew.."
'
'
"Tch. This fucking penalty keeps me from leveling up further."
Archehon twitched his eyes when he looked at the status window.
'System
Host: 'Archehon' (Lucifer in previous life)
Level: 14 Title (equipped): Monster hunter (Amateur)
Stats:
Strength: 15(+7) Speed: 18
Dexterity: 15(+7) Intelligence: 17
Stamina: 15(+7) Luck: 22
Mana: 19 Fatigue: 36
Skills:
Talent: Dell's Talent (-8x penalty) '
"I'm not sure how I'm going to survive through the academy with shitty stats like this."
"It's nice to see the penalty decreasing and being able to get new titles which give permanent buffs but it's still not enough."
Archehon punched the tree, infuriated, while the leaves left the branches out of the force applied.
"Hoooo..", he tried to calm himself.
"Let's go back to the mercenary building."
When Archehon travelled back inside the mercenary building, voices were heard.
"Hey! That's him right? The guy who broke the record for the quickest time to reach E rank from G rank.", one person whispered.
"Yeah that's him!"
Lots of people continued to whisper about him but he didn't pay attention.
'Weaklings. They think it's an achievement to do something as easy as this.'
'I've been in this era for over three months now and there's one thing I've realised..'
'It's that you have to..'
"Act like a good guy on the outside and slowly trick people and puppet them.", he smirked.
"Sorry but puppet what? sir.", the receptionist appeared confused.
"Ahem.. nothing.", he cleared his throat while placing his clenched fist underneath his mouth.
"Can I receive my reward for completing this commission", he handed the paper with another few materials.
The materials consisted of some golem cores and golem rocks. These valuable resources are things Archehon could sell for bronze or silver coins.
"Here's ten silver coins and twenty-nine bronze coins and.."
".. Congratulations on reaching E+ rank.", the woman said.
"Thank you.", Archehon replied in a kind manner.
"Your welcome, have a wonderful day sir."
Archehon walked back out of the building into the lively streets stocked with plenty of people with different purposes.
"Finally, this should be enough."
Archehon left the rich and vibrant streets, and roamed toward the slums which had contrasting features; hardly maintained and dumped with garbage on the sides of the roads.
The lamp started to flicker, indicating how little lighting and electricity was supplied to the slums. While most worried about heating from the night closing in, due to the fact they couldn't afford it.
Archehon was reminded of these terrible conditions as he arrived at his tiny flat.
"Oi. We've given you all this time, Yet! You haven't paid the rent!!"
In the distance, two bulky men confronted Ariel who lowered her two eyebrows, clearly not welcoming them.
Observing the whole situation, Archehon realised what truly was going on.
"If you can't pay with money.."
The thugs looked down at Ariel licking their lips, being very discomforting.
"You can pay us with that-"
"Punch.. Smash!"
The thug speaking was launched towards a wall scrapped with garbage.
"Huh..?", the other thug widened his eyes.
"You disgusting worms. Don't you dare touch my food machine."
The remaining thug brought out his bat poked with steel nails and aimed for Archehon's shoulders.
"D-die!!"
The boy without the mask, ducked and swept the calves of the thug, knocking him over onto his front.
"Ugh.."
"It's not over yet.", he gazed at the fallen thug with a blood-red nefarious grin, covering half of his face.
He grabbed the bottom half of his leg and spun him round and round. Until, Archehon threw him at the other thug who tried to get up.
"Kugh! Boom!"
"U-uhh.. aughh..", they both moaned in pain.
Archehon took out his spear and was about to throw it-
"Archehon.", Ariel held the spears handle.
"Don't kill them."
He stopped as the words acted like a switch.
"Okay, sister. Let's go in now.", he had a smile on his face, different to a couple of seconds ago.
"Huh? Ah, okay."
Both the siblings travelled up the stairs and opened the door to their familiar house they lived in for a while.
"I'll get you dinner ready. You can go wash up, okay?."
"Um.. actually, Ariel. I have a couple of errands to run outside. I'll be back before dinner is ready so don't worry.", he scratched his right cheek.
"Oh okay. Just be careful, it's getting dark.", she warned him.
"Yeah!"
"Click."
"..."
Dead silent.
* * *
"Uuuuggghhh..that kid was strong.", the first thug groaned.
"Y-yeah, we'll have to report this to the boss.", the second thug added on.
"Who's that?", something else asked.
"Are you dumb? We've been working for him for three years now.", the first thug lectured the second.
"I-I didn't say that.", the second thug stammered.
"Yeah, obviously.. Wait, what?"
The first thug let go of the second and turned around to see nothing.
"Hey idiot. That was definitely you-"
"Aaaahhh!!"
He looked at his comrades corpse, which leaked blood from various parts of the body from the deep dagger cuts. Rendered, unrecognizable.
"W-what the fuck?", he stuttered, looking at the boy who hit him to the wall.
"Y-you think you're going to be fine after this. Our boss is someone who works under the Ruler of the Slums."
"Kekekeke.."
"Huh?"
"KEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKEKWKEKWKEKWKEKW-"
"Y-you crazy b--bastard."
"Remember in your next life to.."
The deranged lunatic turned into a person with grim eyes that pierced through the thugs soul.
"..Never touch my food machine ever again."
"Slice!"