The burly man, the thug's leader, also became wary upon seeing the situation. *I only saw him swinging his fist lightly... how did he get there so quickly?*
He couldn't understand the situation, but he knew he needed to finish the job. He roared, "What are you all looking at, bastards? Kill him! He must have used his little mana to kill him!"
Understanding shone in their eyes as they grinned and attacked Veer with even more enthusiasm.
On the other hand, Veer was getting more and more speechless. He himself couldn't understand how he got into this boring situation. It felt like a filler in his story.
The thugs were clearly delusional for thinking he had a small mana pool. He simply coated his hands with a thin layer of mana and punched each thug.
Since Veer had already expected to awaken a weird or trash aspect, he had practiced very hard in his childhood, learning practically everything he could. He was like a sponge, soaking up everything he could find.
This was also the reason for his eventual departure from home, but he didn't regret his decisions. Those choices had always helped him.
In the current situation, he used his unpredictable martial arts to take out the thugs. They were just weak thugs, so how could they stand a chance against him?
He had a larger mana pool, better mana control. Along with his extreme mastery of footwork, he easily took out the thugs. With his agility, he dodged every attack coming at him and attacked with his mana-coated fists.
Every punch of his shattered bones. The thugs couldn't understand how his punches were so powerful when he had just awakened. Even so, he didn't kill any of them, at most injuring them heavily like the first thug.
In just a span of a minute, he had dispatched every thug without getting a single scratch on himself. Not a single thug managed to land a hit on him, despite having weapons.
Dusting off his hands, Veer asked, "I reckon these all are your brothers or something?"
The burly man gripped his hammer tightly and said, "It doesn't matter. I will kill you!"
He began to walk forward, carrying his huge hammer. A single look was enough for anyone to tell the hammer was incredibly heavy, but the thug leader carried it easily and even used it in battle.
Veer also stepped forward and smiled. "None of your brothers have a good, battle-oriented aspect, right? They're too weak. Even you. You're all so weak that I don't understand who gave you the courage to actually attack me."
Raising his hammer high in the air, the thug leader said, "You talk too much!"
Veer was speechless, finding the script a little off. Wasn't he supposed to say that?
*Well, I did spout nonsense there. But I needed that rest. As for him, he probably has a strength-related aspect, or maybe something like a tank?*
Whatever it was, he needed to be careful. This was the main problem in this world. One just couldn't guess another's strength based on their rank.
Just like now, even though the thug leader was F-Rank, just like the other thugs, he had a troublesome aspect.
With a mighty roar, the leader slammed his hammer down on the road. The road instantly shattered under the impact, and web-like cracks appeared all around him.
Veer, who was about to use his footwork, instantly stopped as he guessed his opponent's intentions. Even then, he smiled and took out a pair of gauntlets from his storage ring.
They were crimson red and made from a powerful magical beast's skin. Elara had left them at his apartment once, and he still had them. Now was the perfect time to test them.
He swiftly put them on and smiled. With large steps, he advanced towards the leader and punched at him, using no techniques—just pure raw strength along with mana coating.
The thug leader laughed, seeing that Veer had abandoned his techniques to fight head-on. He obviously guessed that the strange movement technique used a lot of mana, so Veer was already spent.
With a powerful swing, he brought the hammer down on the young man, much smaller than himself. Veer didn't even try to dodge the hammer, surprising the thug leader, but he still continued his attack.
The sound of something solid shattering echoed as blood began to drip from Veer's hand. However, there was still a crazed grin on his face as he raised his head and looked at the stunned thug leader.
Why wouldn't he be stunned? Veer had broken his hammer with just one punch. How was that even possible? Even though the hammer wasn't an artifact, it was still forged from the best materials.
The thug leader quickly shook off his daze and punched at Veer, using his aspect to double his original strength.
However, before his punch could land, it stopped in mid-air. With a horrified look on his face, he coughed up blood and dropped to the ground, clutching his chest. The fragments of his hammer lay beside him, along with many of his injured companions.
The silent highway was now filled with the painful grunts and screams of the thugs. Amidst it all stood Veer, completely indifferent to the mess he had created.
It didn't even look like he had nearly killed so many people. It seemed so... natural to him. However, if anyone looked into his eyes, they would see disgust.
Veer looked down at his feet and sighed. *This just never ends. Damn it.*
Blood dripped from his hand like a stream coming down from a mountain, but he paid it no attention. His mind reeled back to the feeling he'd had when he almost killed the thug.
It was the familiar disgust.
Veer never enjoyed killing; he never considered himself to be a god who could judge others. But there were also times when he felt he should be that god, to judge others.
He was young, yet had taken many lives of people he deemed deserving of death. However, he never grew indifferent to it. Even while killing a filthy murderer, all he felt was disgust—not just towards himself, but towards the world itself and intelligent life.
Yet Veer also knew that was just the world. There was nothing he could do but live in it. So, he chose to abandon that life.
However, just a day after deciding to return to that life, he felt the same disgust all over again.
*Did these men deserve to die?* In his opinion, no. So he didn't kill them, even if others called him an idiot for sparing people who tried to kill him.
He had always been a strange guy, which was why only a few people got along with him. He was fine with it, honestly but he also couldn't abandon those few people who always stood with him. It just didn't sit well with him.
Veer looked down at the thug leader, who couldn't even speak, and crouched down. With a wide smile, he spoke.
"Whatever! I'm not going to kill you, but that doesn't mean you'll get off free. You'll get justice according to my moral compass."
"V!!!"