It surprised him but it wasn’t completely outside of his predictions.

The little bastard was already inside Jor’s list of potential enemies because of his earlier hostile intentions but even with the Spring of Wisdom’s help, Jor couldn’t predict everything. Due to Jor acting as a level 0, he didn’t use his full speed so his pursuers were gaining ground.

He hoped he would lose the pursuers in the denser part of the town, camouflaged himself with the townsfolk, and slowly made his way back to the underground base. His chasers were made of two groups, both were hostile to one another. As long as he didn’t make himself an obvious target, they would fight each other. He and Soris would go their separate paths and the pursuers’ number would dwindle further… or so how Jor originally thought.

The bastard set me up to die… If I’m truly a level 0, this would be a crisis for me! Did he teleport or become invisible? Fuck it, I’ll deal with him later. These uncles chasing my ass are the higher priority.

If this is another story of Japanese shounen or Chinese xianxia, the next part would be the part about I fight a bloody battle with them and won by the skin of my teeth.

In shounen flavor, I would win after realizing no matter how high my personal strength is, friendship power is superior; after a flashback to all the warm and intimate moments with my friends then miraculously win like it was preordained by God.

In xianxia flavor, I would win after unlocking my inner strength. Possibly an ability of the MC’s cheat, at first it was dormant but triggered because MC was close to death; in my case, it was the flower.

It could also be the time of plot armor; a senior clan member would save the MC from the crisis at the last, last second. Other candidates than a kind senior brother or kind uncle would be a stronger than MC female love interest (at that part of the story because the MC would be stronger sooner or later) and an old beggar that MC fed last night which turns out to be an OP immortal. Whatever the case, MC would survive because it was the Will of Heaven. No true xianxia MC would die while the story is ongoing, at most they suffer a flesh wound to their life and become temporary corpse.

Well, enough about those. My idea, Lemon-King-to-be idea is not so grand that no shounen or xianxia or any other novels have never done before. It’s quite simple really.

Jor started to increase his running speed. Just slightly above level 0’s normal standard, not enough to spark suspicions but enough to keep them at a safe distance. The sight of a fatty running with such speed was actually quite comical, although he wore a cloak so it wasn’t overly obvious.

There it is.

Jor changed directions, instead of going to a more populated area in the town he went for the opposite. He went inside a warehouse near the outskirts of town. In the middle of the night, this part of town was quite deserted.

Jor was breaking in with style. He jumped right in through a closed window with his arms crossed in front of his masked face. He’s got his Water Barrier up so he wasn’t hurt, and the momentum of his Victa powered run was enough to break the wooden window bars.

Jor didn’t know what warehouse he was in and didn’t care. He saw boxes and crates in front of him, not perfect but it provided some hiding places. He hid behind one of the crates then… he waited.

Now what are they going to do? Block the exits and box me in or charge right inside? The former option is unlikely, they lack the manpower and not to mention they’re hostile to each other.

Why are they pursuing me anyway? Angelo is understandable because he has a motive, the other church guy might be his backup so they both get a pass. It’s the Teorph cultists that I don’t understand, did they thought the Faith Water might be not in Scarlett’s hand and in one of the three? Weak ass logic, I’m supposed to be the weakest among Dumuzin’s cultists and they also lack the numbers to spread out their forces like that.

Jor felt and heart the sounds of battle from the outside of the warehouse, it seemed his pursuers were fighting each other.

Woow, it’s understandable they fought but isn’t this making things easier for me? Perhaps this is not a crisis after all. Soris’ plan to kill me backfired because he relied on things he didn’t understand. Fools, all of them.

He had the option to run away or stay inside, Jor chose to stay. If he was going to escape, it would be after he made sure his chasers couldn’t pursue him.

***

“Fire Dash! Prominence Flame!”

Angelo sprinted while leaving a trail of fire behind him, with his flaming sword he broke the enemy’s defensive Arte. However, before he could connect his next attack, the other cultist backed his friend up.

“Hand of Sand! Sand Spear!”

The ground near his feet turned into hands made of sand. With his mobility impaired, he had to tank the spear of sand with his flame shield.

“Guahh!”

“Angelo!! Let him go you bastard, Water Sweep!”

Because of Angelo’s partner, the hands of sand binding Angelo became soggy and soon crumbled.

The three cultists backed away and regroup, so did the church’s side.

“Thank you, Jim,” Angelo said while panting.

“…Angelo, I think we should retreat. After the battle at the monastery, our condition is not ideal. They also have greater numbers, we’re at a disadvantage.” Jim urged Angelo.

“No, I must get him tonight. I fear the next time we meet he’ll a level 1. You know how fast these Dumuzin’s cultist in this town raise their level.”

“…If that is what you want, I’ll accompany you to the end, old friend.” Jim readied himself to die.

Hearing Jim’s words, Angelo didn’t have the heart to bring his friend to his death. He would trade his own life if it meant Jor would get Goddess’ justice but he didn’t want Jim to lose his life over his matter.

“…No, you’re right. Let us retreat, there will be another chance.”

Jim looked into Angelo’s eyes for a moment then nodded. Angelo sighed then spoke loudly to the warehouse direction.

“JOOOR! You may get away today, but you won’t be able to run forever! You'll answer for Leon's death! I swear it!”

He was unwilling but Angelo and Jim retreated. Somehow, he felt Jor was snickering behind his mask.

***

Well, well, would you look at that. The church guys are gone, now these three wounded cultists are talking about going in. Completely oblivious that I’m listening. Time for some human testing.

Jor half unsheathed his water container sword then changed to his monster form.

Slowly his human form changed to a blue, amphibian monster. The much feared Terribilis Frog, very similar to poison dart frog on Earth but the size was very different. Poison dart frog was small, the biggest adult frog grew up to 6 cm. Terribilis Frog was a monster, not a normal animal. He remembered that the core alone had the size of a mango. Jor turned into a cat-sized Terribilis Frog, blue-skinned with black spots on its body.

Wow… this form is certainly bigger than I thought. Thought Jor while flexing his froggy muscles.

“Come out little guy, we know you’re still in here.” Jor heard one of them speaking. Jor dubbed him Test Subject A.

“We don’t mean any harm. We just need to examine your belongings, then we’ll let you go without harming a single hair on your body.” Another person spoke, Test Subject B.

“Kishishi…” Test Subject C snickered, holding back his laugh.

Hearing them made Jor rolled his eyes.

Phphtt, amateurs. These are the kind of enemies I encountered? In my old job at Earth, these products won’t even pass the QC, quality check… wait, is it quality check or quality control? Meh, whatever. Time to bring the pain!

Using his frog hand, he pressed the switch of a battery look alike then threw it to their direction. The battery thing went awry because Frog-Jor wasn’t used to throw things with his frog hands but it didn’t matter.

“Look out!” Test Subject B cried a warning out of reflex but after seeing the small thing dropped a few meters in front of them, he let down his guard.

“That’s—” Before Test Subject A could finish that sentence, a thick white cloud of gas burst out from the canister and enveloped the three of them.

“Sand Barrier!”

“Water Barrier!”

“Water Capsule!”

Test Subject ABC invoked their Arte respectively. The battery thing was a magic item that Jor bought when the bullies were disturbing him in the past. It supposed to be a tear gas thing but with three Path-seekers as his opponents, the gas only had minimal effect.

Test Subject B and C were in a protective water barrier so they were unaffected by the tear gas. Test Subject A’s barrier of sand, however, couldn’t prevent the gas from going inside his eyes and nose. The mysterious thing was, even though B and C were inside a watery membrane, they could still breathe just fine. Jor was the same when he used his Water Barrier.

Hmn? A is tearing up while coughing but B and C are fine? Did their Arte negate the gas effect? I didn’t know that, a secondary effect for water-type barrier perhaps? No matter, the gas primary goal is to blind them even for just a moment.

After seeing his enemies were sufficiently disoriented, Frog-Jor came out from behind the crate and readied himself. As if he was an Olympic athlete preparing to make the jump he’d trained for years, Frog-Jor primed his posture, joints, and most importantly, his hind legs muscles and took off from the ground. He was surprised how easy it was; for a frog, jumping came as naturally as breathing.

In the short time he was airborne, he jollily enjoyed the sensation of leaping through the air.

FROG ASSAULT!!! MUAHAHAHAH!