Novel Full 61 First Encounter
Mana supply, check!
Anxiety, check!
Courage, nope!
Greater hostility plus weak presence it is!
Skullius unboldy sauntered towards the path with the weaker presence. After thinking carefully, he had considered that fighting a powerful enemy was never going to be a good idea.
His experience with Azila never left his mind. Even though the Great Mane Mountain Ape was not hostile at first, even when it clearly saw that he was an undead, it still resolved to kill him for reasons unrelated to just being pissed off.
Fighting an unreasonable opponent who was weak was probably the better choice for him so he decided to try his atrocious (?) luck.
As the Discount Human walked through, he saw a strange scene.
A soft light that looked like it was coming from a dim flame illuminated a single spot from above, tearing away the darkness that was present around the vast room.
Skullius couldn’t exactly make out everything that made up this place but the floor was as if made of stone blocks.
Sturdy stone blocks.
They looked chipped and old but they held on through time.
Illuminated by the faint yellow light was the figure of an old man with a white unkempt beard and short hair of the same colour. He wore dirty rags and was seated on the ground with his fading blue eyes exuding a murderous intent.
He kept mumbling to himself, his voice reaching high pitches from time to time which made Skullius hesitate to move forward.
There were two distinctive features about him that stood out in the dark; a bright white mark on his forehead that looked like multiple knots creating the image of something akin to an octopus and a large yoke that bound him.
It was black, with no excess detail as if it was conjured from darkness, binding both his hands and restricting them to the perimeter of his neck while anchored to the ground by thick chains..
“Ah… I know… I was with her last night! She fed me her tomatoes too! Actual tomatoes! She had a whole field of them….can you believe it?!”
“Yes! That’s right! Back in my day, selling tomatoes was punishable by death! I should have told her that actually. Did you hear me, Tonston?!”
Skullius went from being intimidated to being confused. He approached the old man and while using [Basic Mana Manipulation], he felt the man’s core.
It was white with blue embers on its edges!
This old man was definitely weaker than whatever was in the other path. He also looked to be bound, which gave Skullius some hope.
As Skullius approached, the old man turned to him and frowned. He then turned away and continued mumbling nonsense which puzzled Skullius.
“Uhmm…”
What was he supposed to do now?
[You have encountered your first opponent, ‘Sila the great Tower General’]
[Opponents in the Labyrinth of the Yoke are weak to ‘Just Light’ and ‘Evil Darkness’]
[As a rare individual, a carrier of both affinities, you have been given the privilege of two choices. You can choose to release ‘Sila’ from his yoke, honouring him with a fair fight or you can kill ‘Sila’ while he is yoked, depriving him of honour]
[The first choice grants an enhancement to ‘Just Light’ plus the guaranteed gain of a skill from ‘Sila’, while the second grants an increase in ‘Evil Darkness’ plus a chance to steal the soul of ‘Sila’]
[Which do you choose?]
Skullius looked at the stream of notifications with a careful light in his eyes.
So this guy was called Sila. Was he a captive of Fulgardt?
Skullius scratched his chin, thinking deeply on his options.
If he did the ridiculous action of releasing this hostile old man before killing him, he would gain some sort of reward for the affinity of Just Light plus a skill while if he just killed the man, he would get a reward for Evil Darkness plus a chance to steal his soul?
What could he do with the old man’s soul?
Freeing the old man would probably be a dumb idea but it gave a pretty good reward. Skullius could see that this was no ordinary old man after all. One skill from him would probably be insane but…
Could he even defeat him?
The other notification had said that the two affinities he had were the true bane for creatures like Sila?
‘Hmmm.’ Skullius thought. ‘First of all, how do I use these affinities. Evil Darkness… Can I manipulate darkness in general or…?’
Skullius raised his hand and waved it, focusing on the surrounding darkness.
There was no visible change. Nothing moved. Nothing happened.
‘Is it because I can’t see it?’
Skullius tried it with the weak light that came from the unseen ceiling.
As he waved his hand, trying to find the most minute of changes in the light, Skullius saw something!
It was a shift of the light, a very slight one!
Like a distortion on the stream of light that rained on the babbling Sila, a suddenly shift was the response given after a wave of his hand!
‘It works… but it’s so weak!’ Skullius thought.
Skullius drew his sword. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t been able to bring his staff in here. Denille had kept on yamming about how it was just unsightly trash that no one needed, thus she had disposed of it.
Thus, Skullius had been limited to the Baleful Gale Reaper.
He wielded it and unhesitatingly swung it towards the old man’s neck!
The old man stopped talking and gazed at Skullius with cold eyes, but the Discount Human didn’t halt his attack!
MBIIIING!!!
Skullius felt a powerful vibration as the blade struck the old man!
It was like it had struck against steel, bouncing off Sila’s neck!
He grunted and drew back, watching the old man look at him with a mocking gaze.
“You should have told her that selling tomatoes was forbidden! It’s you, isn’t it?! The one who stole the tomatoes?! I’ll kill you!” Sila began raging under Skullius’ dumbfounded eyes.
‘Bro, what the flesh are you talking about?!’ Skullius wondered.
The fact that his sword had bounced this old man only added to his confusion. Even if he was weak, this blade wasn’t a common item. It surely should have done some damage.
‘Can I really only kill them with these affinities?’
Skullius looked at his sword and then at Sila who was scowling at him.
“Let’s see then. What if I…” Skullius mumbled before he began to focus on the darkness around and try to wrap it around his sword!
With this, he should be able to see how efficient the affinities were, right?
That was if he actually managed to manipulate them.
The Discount Human put his mind to it, focusing on the darkness that seemed to refuse to budge.
He focused on the sword as it was what he wished to be able to conduct even the tiniest bit of darkness.
After a few seconds, Skullius saw it!
Jagged bits of darkness clung onto the edges of the sword. They were like small stains on the blade, showing just how little Skullius could do with this power at the moment.
Skullius was gnashing his teeth as he felt that if he lost concentration for a second, the darkness would run back home to the surroundings.
With this much on the sword, Skullius edged his way to the bound Sila, and decided to give it a try.
He raised his sword under the vigilant gaze of rambling old man and brought it down!
TCH!
A small portion of the sword cut through Sila, pinching into the flesh!
The old man grunted and looked at Skullius hatefully.
“You…! You’re using Darkness! It really is you! I will… I will… avenge her for the tomatoes you stole! Just you wait!” Sila yelled.
Skullius ignored the idiotic nonsense as just this much progress was great for him to see.
“It really works!” Skullius exclaimed with a joyful expression.
He then went on to wear the grinniest grin he could as he began hacking away at Sila’s head!
Blood sprayed while the old general kept on babbling about tomatoes, Skullius not minding how horrific this scene looked especially with the added aesthetic of darkness.
It didn’t take long for the aged head of Sila to drop to the ground and for Skullius to receive his reward for such a gruesome undertaking.
[You have killed Higher level existence, ‘Sila the great Tower General’. You have gained experience]
[550,000 Exp awarded]
[Would you like to appoint Exp to ‘Null Lifeform (Boneman) or ‘Discount Human’?]
[Your prey emits…]
Skullius jumped for joy as he saw the massive amount of experience he had just received! If he shipped it all to his Boneman form…
“Hehehehe!”
Skullius felt like things were finally going his way after a long while… again.
He tried to extract the Null Life Essence from Sila but unfortunately, his bar for the resource was already full.
Before Skullius could give a remark on the matter, more notifications popped up on his guidance field.
[You have chosen to grant ‘Sila’ no honour, mercilessly killing him while he is bound and trapped in madness. The vestiges of Fulgardt grin with approval]
[You have surpassed the expectations of the Labyrinth with your pure cruelty]
[‘Evil Darkness’ affinity has been to promoted ‘D’ rank]
[You have gained the soul of ‘Sila the great Tower General’]
“Ohoo….” Skullius said as a nasty grin crept onto his fake face!