"Nice! This is exactly what I want!" exclaimed Bowen excitedly. Rona, Akim, and the driver thought they had heard wrongly.
"Nonsense, stop it kid. This is not the time for you to joke around," shouted the driver.
"You... Did you become insane due to fear? We are all going to die, alright. Why do you seem happy?" asked Rona, frustrated. "This is not how one should respond when on their deathbed."
"Kid, don't rely on us anymore. Those monsters are beyond our capability," said Akim helplessly.
"Aah! I shouldn't have listened to you people. My family is waiting for me. Please do something," the driver kept crying.
Bowen didn't care to explain much; he quickly wanted to dive in and start his killing spree. Just then, he heard a familiar voice.
"MAASHERRE... mashere... woaa masherrr mosquitos... big mosquitoes... young masheer mason protect..." Mason, who had just woken up from a daze due to the buzzing sound, saw Bowen in danger and immediately came to the rescue.
"MASON, why did you get down from the wagon? Go inside," Bowen didn't feel like babysitting Mason at the moment.
"Masheer masoon prottecht!"
"You mean you are going to protect me?" asked Bowen, confused.
"Yes!" said Mason determined. At that moment, he would have looked like a soldier going to war if not for his staggering legs. Nonetheless, he remained firm in his decision. "I will protect my master. Master believed in me and helped me several times. This time I will be the one protecting master," he thought.
He immediately took Thorn Whisper and loaded his arrow. The adventurers and the driver gained new hope.
"Hey boy, is your uncle a master at archery?" asked Rona expectantly.
"Nope, he has never touched them in his lifetime," said Bowen, embarrassed.
"What???!"
All the hope left as soon as it came. This guy had never touched a bow, and moreover, he was drunk to the brim. Could he even load the arrow properly? Just as everyone was thinking Mason was going to mess up terribly, WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH...
Piercing the air, the arrow Mason shot with his unsteady legs and body moved at jet speed and disappeared before anyone could see its trajectory.
THUD. Only when one of the monsters fell down did they notice the arrow had impaled the head of the monster squarely on its forehead – its weak point.
A ONE-SHOT KILL! Mason, an unawakened one, shot down an F-rank monster!
The driver, Akim, Rona, and even Bowen looked at Mason with wide-eyed surprise. Could someone this drunk even aim properly?
"Hey, you said he never touched a bow!" stated Rona, looking at Bowen.
"Hey, that's true. It must be luck. Don't expect much from him. He will miss the next sh... THUD," Bowen was interrupted by another monster's corpse falling to the ground.
THUD. With the third shot, another monster fell.
"Ahhh! Masssherr masherrr Mason shot three maherr. Mason shot three... Mason rejoiced happily. This was his first time achieving something. Moreover, he got a chance to wield a bow in life. He will enjoy to his fullest.
Bowen was speechless at the moment. He even rubbed his eyes to see clearly. How is this guy pulling off this kind of stunt? Has he been lying to me all this time? His aim is without any error; all three arrows struck the monsters in the middle of the forehead exactly.
WHOOSH... THUD WHOOSH... THUD
In the meantime, another two corpses fell as a result of the next two arrows.
"OUR SAVIOUR! OUR SAVIOUR!" the driver started to fold his arms in prayer under the legs of Mason. All he could see was a halo and an angel wielding an arrow.
"Great! We can make it out alive! Thank God there is someone strong among us," Akim said, throwing his hands in the air.
"Yes, yes, we misjudged him all this time. He must be a hidden archery master," Rona said happily. She could finally see herself going back alive. She would even offer to massage Mason's legs and hands if he saved them tonight.
While others were happy, Bowen's mouth was wide open. He never thought that Mason, who got beaten and drunk on the streets, could heroically kill F-rank monsters that even F-rank adventurers couldn't handle.
"Sys... system, show me Mason's status," said Bowen with a trembling voice. He really needed to know what was happening here.
The status of the slave is as follows: Name: Mason (male, human) Age: 32 Status: Unawakened Strength: 4 Vitality: 3 Agility: 3 Intelligence: 5 Magic Attributes: none Martial attribute: Archery (unawakened) - (sss+ rank) Innate Skill: Hawk eye Character: shameless, depressed, bibulous, keen senses Bloodline: descendant of archery god Melvin Blessing of the god of archery - Melvin.
"WHAT THE!!!! sss+ rank talent? Descendant? Blessing??? Has the world come to an end? This drunkard is a prodigy! Why the hell did he waste 32 years of his life then?"
Bowen's heart pained. Solaris is a holy dragon emperor. Renault is an SSS-rank assassin with dual-element magic, and now Mason is a descendant of the archery god. What the heck, everyone under him is a monster. They can easily surpass him without any hard work. Why the hell, as a master, did he have to train with blood and sweat every day?
[These bastards!!! Can't you reincarnate me OP?? Why the hell am I like this??? Even that insolent weak brat Jago has the blessing of the wind spirit. What about him, who has a mission of saving the world? What has he got? Nothing. He had to die several times to even awaken in one element, while this drunken punk can one-shot monsters without any experience. Unfair... life is too unfair!!!] Bowen cried internally.
Even though he was cursing Mason in his mind, he was also happy. After all, Mason was his slave. That meant he would have a stronger ally by his side in the future. Bowen was glad that it was he who discovered Mason's talent first.
BZZZ BUZZZZZ. Bowen's consciousness returned to the fight upon hearing the buzzing sound. Mason had already killed eight monsters, all of them with one shot each. The monsters seemed disoriented due to the sudden deaths of their comrades.
"Massaher amassser, the arrowwsss," said Mason, showing the empty quiver on his shoulder with a sad face. There were only eight arrows, and he had used them all. As these were common-rank arrows, they didn't have a return function.
"Hey, what happened?" Seeing Mason's actions, Rona had a bad premonition.
"Don't tell us you don't have any arrows left anymore," said Akim, not wanting to believe it.
"MY GODDD, WHY, WHYYYY? Why are you doing this to us? Please help us. I will come to your holy hall every day. Please save me, please!" The driver started to pray to God in fear.
While BUZZZZZ BUZZZ BUZZZZZ, the monsters took this chance to organize themselves again. They started nearing the group.
"Oh nooo ooo! I'm gonna die, waaah, I don't want to die... pleaseee!"
"HEY, RUNNN, YOU GUYS, RUNNN! I will distract them with my sword, run!" shouted Akim.
"Idiot, how can we run when we are surrounded on all sides? It's because of you. If you hadn't brought me here, I wouldn't die here uselessly," shouted Rona back, dropping the respectful way of addressing him. Akim's hands shook as he held the sword, tears and snot visible on their faces. They wished for a painless death. The driver even considered suicide.
One buzzer reached Rona first. She closed her eyes in fear, not wanting to see the monster up close. She was prepared for the pain she would feel as the monster tore into her flesh bit by bit. SPLASH. After ten seconds, she still didn't feel the anticipated pain or the sounds of the group's painful demise. She slowly opened her eyes to see the source of the silence. She couldn't believe what she saw.
Before her, Bowen moved like a flash, slapping the monsters to death. Yes, slapping. Just one slap, and the monsters turned to pulp. But what she saw next was beyond belief. Bowen caught a monster by its head in one hand and its body in the other. He made a tearing motion, and the monster's head separated from its body. He tore through the monster like one would tear a loaf of bread into two. And his speed... He danced around the field in all directions. One monster was killed every two seconds. They couldn't even see his movements. None of the monsters could get near a group member; they were all killed a foot away from the group. He was single-handedly killing all the monsters by himself?
Rona opened and closed her mouth several times, but she couldn't utter a single word. Akim and the driver were no better. "Unbelievable" was written all over their faces. Even Mason saw his master in a new light. He knew his master had a powerful backing, having the Starfall emblem and all, but he didn't know he was this powerful. He could have killed Mason with a flick of his finger.
While this group of spectators stood motionless in a daze...
Ting Congratulations, host, you have killed an F-rank monster. +5 EXP.
Ting Congratulations, host, you have killed an F-rank monster. +5 EXP.
Ting Congratulations, host, you have killed an F-rank monster. +5 EXP.
Ting ... Ting ... Ting ... Bowen heard the sweet sound of EXP filling his experience bar.
"MY EXP, MY EXP, UHOOO! ALL MINE, HAHAHAAA... FINALLY, I CAN HAVE THEM ALL TO MYSELF," Bowen gloated in his mind.
"Go, Master, go! Hit, hit... kill, kill, yeah! Yes!" Mason started cheering for Bowen happily. He was so proud to be a slave of such a powerful master.
"Did you just call him master?" asked Rona doubtfully, looking at Mason. All this time, she was so immersed in fear that she hadn't noticed anything about Bowen. She never thought he could be special.
"Huh? Yeesh! Masster slave Mason," said Mason proudly, showing the simple leather collar on his neck that Bowen had given him to wear temporarily until the customized collar was ready.
"You're not his uncle?" asked Rona, surprised.
"A slave, Master? So young? Ah! Don't tell me he's a noble?" asked Akim, thinking. Only the children of nobility or high status could have a slave while they were this young.
"Yeeess! Masteer nobble," said Mason proudly. He saw how people treated Bowen with respect after he showed the Starfall emblem. Bowen was closer to being a noble.
"WHAAAT?????"
"Have we been treating a noble rudely all this time? Seeing him killing the monsters just like swatting mosquitoes, he must be above F-rank."
"Wait!!!!! Is he a ranker??????"
Everyone realized what kind of detail they had missed.