Feeling the hot red blood splurt on my hand, I blanked out for a second. But I resolutely turned my face away from the corpse, trying my best to forget the mangled piece of bloodied neck I just saw.
My hands started trembling but I clenched my palm tightly on Durandal's hilt and dug deep into the soil, sprinting towards the first thief I saw.
Even in this chaotic situation my Appraisal skill did it's job, showing me all the thieves with their respective levels.
The level 2 thief in front of me was still fighting with a villager and didn't even realize when my sword pierced straight through his neck.
[Holy Sword Durandal
-Attack Power x5
-HP Absorption
-MP Absorption
-Incantation Interruption]
Again I realized how sharp and overpowered Durandal truly was. It went through people's bodies with zero resistance as if cutting through air.
Knowing that this was the best moment to cull the herd, I stopped thinking and just went through the motion of accelerating, stabbing, stopping and accelerating again.
In under a minute I had killed 6 more thieves and now I had eyes on the level 11 thief. After this whole minute, the thieves were starting to notice.
The level 19 thief, the second in command, was fighting the village chief. The village chief being a low level 8 was barely holding on. But noticing Hugo's dead body that thief shouted for everyone to retreat.
The level 11 thief also saw me and started charging towards me like an angry bull. I saw that he also was wearing leather armour and knowing our strength difference, I instead of waiting and clashing with him head on, I charged towards him.
In a blur I was by his side and slashed at his wrist. Durandal did its job slashing through bones like its butter. The thief yelled in agony and I had already thrusted my sword towards his face after completing the slash.
This time I closed my eyes and turned my head before I could see the scene of his face meeting my sword. After his voice abruptly stopped, I could see ten or so thieves running away without looking back including the level 19 thief.
I rushed at them and started swiping Durandal through the bodies of anyone who wasn't wearing armour or thrusting through the necks of people who wore them.
Before I knew it I had my Durandal inside the skull of the last remaining thief who was at level 19, and was able to run the farthest. Them running and showing their backs to me without fighting had seriously helped me.
Still I was wheezing through my mouth taking gulps of air, my lungs felt as if they were on fire, my arms and legs felt heavy. But I still scanned my surroundings for any thief still alive.
Appraisal shining through again as it showed no thief anywhere around. Only after that did I sit on the ground not minding the bloody soil even a bit.
I saw the village head coming towards me. I took deep breaths to get my breathing under control. Looking down I saw my clothes dyed red, especially my hands, they felt gooey.
Looking around as far as I could see, there were corpses of thieves everywhere. Almost all of them were killed by me, butchered like animals. I felt sick, I felt like vomiting. Before my body could show any adverse reaction the village head arrived.
"Thank you for saving us, Sir"
I could understand him perfectly but knew that he wasn't speaking in Brahim, maybe this was the Empire's common tongue for villagers.
"Can you speak Brahim?"
I could instinctively switch between languages, and despite knowing their language but still speaking in Brahim was a calculated move.
"Yes sir I can, As expected of an Adventurer such fluent Brahim"
"Your Brahim, isn't all that bad "
"Thank you sir, Again I would like to thank you for saving our village in our hour of need"
"I couldn't just let thieves attack innocent people"
"Such a heroic spirit, please sir allow us to show our gratitude in any way we can"
"Is that so? Then I am very tired and would like to wash this blood off and lie down somewhere"
"Please stay at my house sir, I am called Somara the village chief"
[Somara
Village Chief Level 8
Equipment: Copper Sword, Robe, Sandals, Village Chief's ring]
I knew from the story already that people here don't have last names at least not ordinary people.
"My name is … Michio"
We took the long road back avoiding the corpses.The people on the way back kept greeting the chief and taking glances at me and my weapon.
"Brahim is very rare In this village. Only me, the merchant and his wife speak Brahim"
"I am more comfortable with Brahim, I understand the common tongue but I am not that fluent in it"
"At such a young age getting this fluent in Brahim is already impressive Michio-sama, there was one more adventurer who could speak Brahim but in this battle … Alas "
Yes I know the level 25 villager.
We went to a private 2-story house, made of earthen walls. The village chief spoke to an elderly lady, she was 65 year old, presumably his wife, to prepare hot water for me.
I was led inside a small room with a dirt floor and a wooden plank in the name of a bed.
"Please sir rest here until the bath water is prepared"
"I will do that"
"I will be back soon then Michio-sama"
I lay down on the rock solid plank, lamenting the medieval age setting.
'Character reset'
[Character Settings
BP:1
Status: Agility +16
Bonus Equipment: Level6 Weapon, Level2 Accessory
Bonus Spells:
Bonus Skills: Required Experience x1/3, Experience Gain x3, Second Class, Appraisal, Character Reset]
I gained an extra BP because I leveled up.
[ Kaga Michio
Villager: Level 2
Thief: Level 2
Equipment: Holy Sword Durandal, Ring of Determination, Sandals]
So my BP will always be: 99 (original BP) + (the top job level - 1)
Which comes out to be 100 as total right now.
Even after fighting so many opponents, who were so higher level than me and getting a 9 times boost, I still only leveled up once. Like I was only level 1 they were level 41, level 19 , level 11. This should be like the most leapfrogged massacre ever.
The 9 times boost comes from both reduction and gain x3 as both superimpose. So this showed that the problem is with humans as they are horrible sources of exp, totally inefficient. And leveling itself is very hard in this world.
I then removed Durandal, the ring and the agility points. Durandal and ring both vanish from my hands and get converted into points, bringing it to 83 BP.
I add one point to Job setting temporarily.
[Job Setting
Acquired Job: Villager Level 2, Thief Level 2, Hero Level 1
Set Job: Villager Level 2, Thief Level 2]
[Villager
Effect: Increase Endurance (slight)
Skill: None]
[Thief
Effect: Increase Agility (slight)
Skill: None]
[Hero
Effect: Increased HP (Medium), Increased MP (Medium), Increased Physical Strength (Medium), Increased Endurance (Medium), Increased Intelligence (Medium), Increased Spirit (Medium), Increased Dexterity (Medium), Increased Agility (Medium)
Skill: Overwhelming]
Looking at this skill list, I can confidently say that all the bloodshed was totally worth it!