After an hour of traveling through the main road to another city, they saw a bright light of flames and smoke as houses burned nearby.
"That's Tharan village," Rin said. "Let's go there. We need to kill more, especially some unique monsters in our task, like demons and holy beings. We need to kill those above level 50, but we are not even level 20. We need to get strong quickly."
"Yep. It seems that you are less worried about your parents now," said Erix before moving the bike towards the path leading to the burning village.
"Haha, I got confidence in them. Since I managed to survive, they will surely survive," Rin grinned. "I am sure they are also getting stronger."
*Dhoof, dhoof, doof…!*
Both of them suddenly heard a familiar sound and looked up.
"A helicopter?!"
Rin and Erix saw a helicopter moving at a super fast speed. At first, they thought it would descend near the village, but it just went past it.
"Must be some big shot in that, humph," Erix snorted as he remembered his scummy father.
…
Inside the helicopter…
"How long will it take to reach the military headquarters in Targon?" Ben asked the pilot through a radio phone. He was none other than Erix's biological father, Ben Melkan!
"Sir, if we don't encounter any trouble, we will reach there in roughly thirty minutes."
"Father… What about Erix? His house is not too far. Shouldn't we go there?" asked Hathor in a worried tone. He was Ben's son.
However, hearing Hathor's words, Bertha coldly snorted, "He can take care of himself. No need to worry about him."
Bertha had long, slightly disheveled red hair, a slim figure, and a big bust. She was an above-average beauty wearing a v-neck dress with a fair skin tone.
She was the mother of two nineteen-year-old siblings, Marisa and Hathor.
"That's right, Hathor. Your brother is a so-called martial artist. He will survive," said Marisa while looking through her mobile phone for some news.
The network was not dead, but it was not perfectly running either. It was only a matter of time before the Internet died, and people lost the means to contact one another through the Internet.
Ben didn't say anything and just kept his somber expression. Hathor saw that and didn't speak any further about Erix.
Ben's family knew about Erix, who was Ben's bastard son. But aside from Hathor, none cared about Erix.
Instead, Hathor admired Erix after meeting him a few times. Although Erix always behaved indifferently, even slightly foul mood when meeting him outside sometimes, Hathor could understand why and didn't mind it.
He knew that Erix was a good person deep down, good and very strong, both mentally and physically.
He admired Erix and wanted to be like him.
'Brother Erix, I am sure you are fine.
…
"Damn, is anyone even alive?" Rin softly muttered as she and Erix entered the village through its burning gates after parking the bike outside.
Just as they crossed the village gate and passed by a burning wooden board blocking their view, they were startled to see four strange creatures with dark red horns, devilish tails, ugly mouths with sharp black teeth, and long black claws.
They were eating people in the middle... On a small mountain of corpses consisting of over thirty people of varying ages.
Rin frowned.
"Disgusting creatures."
[Dark Helling]
_Race: Demon
_Level: 28
_Vitality: [200/200]
_Stats:
——>[Strength: 52 / Agility: 54 / Health: 43 / Stamina: 33]
——>[Magic Affinity: Rank: C / Magic Power: 32 / Mana: 32]
"All four of them are above level 20. The dagger won't kill them instantly," Rin said as she took out her Oni-Taijin Sword.
——
[Oni-Taijin Sword (Uncommon-grade): A sword filled with intense hate for demons. Deals additional 20 flat damage that ignores defense to demons]
-> Attack: User's Strength + 50.
——
"Yes. Let's take two each."
"Wait. Let me handle them alone. I want to test my skills against four of them," Rin said as she licked her lips with a battle-hungry expression.
*Creeee!*
All four demons sharply screamed before standing up and dashing toward Rin with glowing red eyes.
Rin's eyes flickered with lightning as she charged her sword with the Lightning Charge skill, consuming 25 of her mana.
[23 additional lightning damage added to the sword for one minute]
*Swoosh….*
Rin dashed forward as her feet crackled with lightning upon using the Thunder Blitz skill!
[Thunder Blitz (1st tier active skill): Dashes 1 to 5 meters with a burst of quick speed. The next attack after using this skill deals extra 50% damage as lightning damage. The additional damage will chain between a maximum of five targets as long as they are within five meters of the first hit target].
*Crackle…boom!*
As her speed explosively increased, she passed by a demon and slashed its neck, creating a loud rumble of thunder as that demon's head flew in the sky.
-237!
Dead!
[You have killed a level 28 Dark Helling. +3 Agility. +3 Strength]
[You have reached level 19. You have gained 2 unassigned stat points]
-79!
-79!
-79!
The other three demons were hit by lightning and suffered 79 damage each, but they quickly turned around and waved their long claws toward Rin.
Rin quickly ducked down as she did a sweep kick, causing two demons to fall while doing an upper slash after that to damage the 3rd demon that was still standing.
-137!
[You have killed a level 26. +2 Agility, +2 Strength]
The other two demons pressed their legs on the ground tightly before they backed away six meters with spring-like jumping!
But while in the air, they issued painful screams as their bodies glowed, and then they waved their claws, conjuring black energy claw-shaped projectile that shot towards Rin!
"Careful!" Erix shouted as he saw the magical attack. Those claw-shaped projectiles were wide!
"I got it!"
Erix was going to use his Iron Flower skill to defend her but stopped after hearing her.
Rin narrowed her eyes as she pointed her sword at one of the energy claws while jumping up to dodge the other.
*Sheeeen!*
Her sword glowed with a sharp dark silver sheen.
——> [ Sword Beam (1st tier active skill) ]: Unleash a straight destructive beam from your sword that deals 160% of your sword's attack power. 20 meters range. The skill's damage also increases according to the user's Strength and Magic stats. ]
A beam unleashed from her sword destroyed one of the claw projectiles in mutual destruction as both exploded.
But Rin sucked in a cold breath of air in pain as she failed to dodge the other one completely.
-21!
She was slightly grazed by that black claw while jumping as it slightly injured her left foot's bottom.
But it was not serious, and the demons seemed to weaken after they unleashed their powerful black claw-shaped projectile attacks.
*Swoosh..*
After Rin landed, she unleashed a Sword Beam again by pointing her sword at a Dark Helling, her aim impeccable as the beam hit that demon's head and blasted it!
[You have killed.... +1 Agility. +1 Strength]
*Crackle…boom!*
Right after unleashing the sword beam, Rin used Thunder Blitz to dash forward at a breakneck speed and killed the last demon.
The last demon dropped a treasure chest of cyan-colored patterns, but it didn't give her any attributes.
"Phew, done!" Rin said with a smile before a slight frown appeared as she looked down.
Her injured foot was slightly bleeding.
"Those claw-shaped projectiles were dangerous," Erix said while shaking his head wryly.
"Hehe, it's fine—Just a small wound. See, I can already feel it healing faster than normal," Rin said with a cheeky smile before she walked toward the treasure chest.
[ Treasure chest (Uncommon grade) ]
"H-Help, please!"
Before Rin could open the treasure chest, they heard a voice from a nearby house ten meters away. That house was one of the few that was not burning, but it was only a matter of time before the fire reached there.
However, Rin and Erix soon saw a little boy peeking out at a window with a pleading expression.