Warning! Contains abusive cursing sentences!

___________________________________________________________________

It didn’t take long before I realized what was happening. Balls of fire were flying everywhere, almost like the spectral of ghost that can usually be seen in some ghost movie. Craters were made around the village outskirt.

Hundreds of Mermen were sighted

“What the…!” Eden couldn’t manage to finish his sentence as he was looking at the scenery in front of us.

The Mermen were holding staff, blunt, mace, swords and other different kind of weapons which I couldn’t identify. Mermen who I deemed as ‘Defender’ stood as the main defense against the villagers. The Defenders were holding a shield and wore and exaggerated visual fashion of an armor.

“This is weird…” No Hair said.

Well if there is anything that was weird, it was no other than seeing the Mermen attacking the villagers and No Hair was only standing looking at the surrounding.

“Certainly, the Mangdora Creep is not here.” Eden said while he was reading himself once again.

“I hope this would turn out to be a good outcome…” No Hair said and jumped into the warzone.

As I watched the war that was almost looked like a scene that came straight out from the movie, I activated my stealth and walked discreetly into the battle field. Whenever there was an obstacle in front of me I made sure to take a detour to avoid from engaging in a battle.

***

I opened the party interface.

I don’t know what limitation does this game partying system have, but I guess this is the right time to find out. I was walking sneakily taking my detour…

*Whoosuu Boom!*

Woouw!!! What the hell was that?

My invisibility was cancelled out as I was surprised by the fireball that hit the ground and blew up 1 meter from me. Thankfully it wasn’t that strong of a fireball that it only created a scorched ground. 3 Mermen locked their sight on me. They were Defender, a normal henchmen and a Mermen Mage.

“Err… Hi?”

“UuuaaaRRR!!” The Mermen shrieked.

You’ve heard the shriek of the Mermen. You are in a state of confusion, all of the skill that you are activating will be cancelled and you cannot use any skill for two minutes.

Oh great!

The Mermen Mage fired a shot of fireball towards me, which I brilliantly evaded by my Godly dodging skill.

Hmm, I smelled a pungent odor.

Okay I admitted it; it did manage to burn some part of my hair, and shoulder... Thankfully the leather armor was firmly worn on my body so I didn’t really feel the burning sensation and only left with the heat. I lost 6% of my total hp.

And the Mage throw another shot of fire ball. I jumped forward to where the Mermen Mage was, pulled out my dagger and sunk its tip into the Mermen body.

Straight in the kokoro!

I think I landed a critical hit as the Mermen turned gray in one attack only. Looks like my luck really played it role here.

The Mermen Mage itself does not have any armor around its body to begin with. It was only wearing a leather robe, with the distinction of a Mage and a staff made out of wood. Just like in every game, though Mage are bestowed with great offence power, but they have a very low physical defense.

I took the staff which the Mermen dropped as loot and threw it at the normal henchman. The henchman HP immediately turned from green to red. I put my strength into my legs and ready to jump at the henchmen.

Boom!

But instead, I was thrown away five meters to my right. It was the Mermen Defender. Using the shield as its weapon, the Defender while it was ducking down, hurled its entire body toward my direction.

I was feeling confused a little as I think the shield bump my head so hard, I got a severe headache for 2 second. Literally I was stunned. Thankfully the Defender have a slow attack speed. I jumped to the left, avoiding its charge by a hair breadth. Hold the dagger using both of my hand and stab its back that was 10 inches away from my face.

CLANK!

Damn! Its armor has a sturdy defense.

Knowing that I won’t be able to penetrate the Defender defense, I took a strategic retreat and ran toward the henchmen instead. The henchman who by far was only watching me and the Defender as if it was watching a Marvel movie widened its eye when it realized that I was aiming for its head.

Using my right hand, I hold the dagger firmly and beheaded the Mermen in front of me.

The Mermen War Cry effect has wore off.

Ssap!

The henchmen had its head separated from its neck! Before the henchmen turned gray, I took its head and threw it at the Defender who was already charging back at me.

I activated Invisibility!

The sound of the henchmen head crushed by the impact of the Defender shield could be heard. It sounded like a watermelon that was ran over by a heavy truck. The sound of it was still fresh inside my head; it was when I went to Okinawa with my sisters as their errand boy that I accidentally saw an accident which involved a heavy truck with a small truck carrying lots of watermelon.

Thinking that it had crushed me into a lump of meat, the Defender stood its ‘stand at ease’ position.

Think again big ass Mermen with a big ass armor!

I jumped ‘playfully’ in attempt not to cancel out my invisibility. Aiming for its nape, I thrust my dagger into the Defender. Thrusting it faster and even more vigorous than what I ever did during my night exercise.

HELL YEAH CRITICAL HIT!

The Defender fall into its demise!

Luckily there was no delay for the invisibility skill, as long as I can calm myself down fast enough, I can already use it. Thus, I reactivated it again and I went back on my way, my destination is to where Sheldon is.

You have gained a level! You have 5 additional stat points to be distributed

I gained another level!

Great! I keep getting EXPs from No Hair and Eden, now if only I can reach out to Sheldon and invite him to the party I can get a lot more exp! More exp equals to more level! More level equals to more stat points! Just imagine how much point on luck I can distribute later.

I was about to distribute my stat points when a wild Mermen came out of nowhere and hit me. Well it was more like, the merman was thrown away and it hit me. It was a Mermen warrior. I’ve lost 15% of my total Hp since the beginning of the war, and now I’ve lost another 2% which make the total to 17%.

I can feel my bone breaking, the pain is real…

I moved the dead Mermen warrior away and helped myself up. The Mermen warrior immediately turned gray afterward. I scanned my surrounding, it was Sheldon. He was hitting the merman warrior using Eden’s pan. If I were to get bashed by that pan straight into the face, I would get K.Oed in less than 2 second.

“Ichiroku!” Sheldon screamed out with delight! “You’re back?”

No, I’m not 'back' yet!

Seriously these AIs! They sure love stating the obvious! He already saw me in front of his eyes, back from exterminating the Mermen at their base, and he asked ‘You’re back?’

“I’m glad that you’re back, where are Eden and Captain?”

“They are fighting the Mermen outside.”

“I see, well we have to make our way to them…”

Err… How about no?

I don’t want to fight those Mermen again; I’m planning to invite Shelden to the party and left them fighting the Mermen while I hide away. Okay, maybe I’ll try to save the villagers that I found in need of my help. But seeing how they manage to fight off the Mermen so magnificently back then, I don’t think my help is needed. Not even the subjugation force.

“Okay but first, get into my party.” I said and send him a party invites.

“Let me join you brave adventurer!” A male villager said and it was followed by a few other villagers. After I sent party invitation they all accepted it, and the party consist of 20 people including me, Ichiroku and Eden. We then make our way to where No Hair was.

I don’t know what battle formation a party usually takes when they were fighting monster, or travelling while being cautious. For the mean time I was in the center of the party, Sheldon was in front. We were moving as if we were inside a circle.

There were a few Mermen Warriors came to our way, but the villagers fight it off easily. They punched the Mermen head causing the Mermen Warriors to experience dizziness; the villagers than proceed by taking over their swords can split the Mermen into half with their sharp swing.

That’s it, that’s right! Do the work for me, kill the Mermen for me! Protect me as if I am your king, as if I am your Salvation!

Boom!

A big fireball went on our way and exploded before it hit us. It took me a while to figure out that it was Sheldon that parried the fireball using the pan. Weird, I thought he doesn’t know how to fight?

“Are you guys okay?” Sheldon asked.

“Yeah we’re all right!” the men answered energetically.

We continued on our way, with the same orderly fashion. It wasn’t long before another consecutive balls of fire went on our way. Sheldon was unable to parry it all, resulted in more than five fire ball managed to hit us.

We were all thrown away. Some of the man was dead; their character info was grayed in party interface. I got the feeling that I’m going to fail this quest! But the quest had already been updated from protect the villagers from the Mermen into ‘weaken the Mermen forces’. So I don’t think there would be any penalty for the dead villagers.

“Sheldon are you okay?” I screamed out.

“Y-yeah!”

“What was that?” I asked.

The Mermen Mage that I fought before need time to recast its spell and there was a delay between every spell. But the one in front of us was nothing like that, it had the same appearance as Mage but he was not holding a staff, but rather a spear.

“It’s a Spell Caster?”

“What? Spell Caster? What difference does it have with a Mage? Don’t Mage cast spell too?”

“Well… For starter there is a big difference in power!” Sheldon raised his voice.

There was a loud deafening sound that came from the tip of the > spear. The very tip of it began to emit a bluish light.

“Ku pangir rangit, kemon ke lembing ku! karualla gingging ku sakalian! Ancurkan setansetan ni!”

The Spell Caster screamed out its spell. Whips of lightning came toward us. One of the lightning whips caught me by my leg, sending an electric shock throughout my body. I can feel the pain as if it was melting away my cells. I also saw a vision of my own skull and bones as the electric current pass through my body.

Free X-Ray analysis! Thank God there were no broken bones when a Mermen warrior was thrown at me earlier.

After a few seconds that was almost forever for me, the lightning whip was cease off from existence.

In front of me were no other than a Mermen Spell Casters, a Defender and two Mermen Warriors. Saying words that I don’t understand while chanting their spell, the Spell Caster locked me as their target.

I was unable to move as I was bind by their thorny vines skill. Each one minute it shaved off my total hp by five percent.

Using every bit of strength that I had in me, I slash the vines using my dagger. I was damaged by the poison thorn but I couldn’t care less as I was going to die at the end of the rope if I didn’t get out from the binding.

I jumped sideways and regroup with Sheldon. On the other hand, Sheldon who was still being cautious was chanting something.

“>” Sheldon said and activated his skill.

You are in effective range of allies’ aura - generate 1000 hp for 30 seconds.

My hp that was already red from the lightning whip became green once again. Looks like I was not at total disadvantage after all. We are lacking offensive power but our defence is quite sturdy. Or should I say, we’re like cockroaches that won’t die easily due to Sheldon healing.

My HP bar kept on going red due to the Mermen attack, and by went green with Sheldon healing technique. It really feels good when I was being healed; it felt like as if I was being messaged on my whole body. I might develop an addiction for this, I don’t mind getting hurt if I can experience this healing all day.

Oh crap, I almost turned into masochist there.

“Ichiroku.” Sheldon called out to me.

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think I can be much of use here,”

What are you even talking about? You are being very useful… by keeping me alive. If it weren’t for you I’d be long dead, killed by those Mermen combo attacks.

“No, you are being very helpful, you might not have the offence power like Eden or no hair had but you got the healing technique. I’ll think of ways to fight them, but I need you to keep healing me.”

“I-I understand.”

Sheldon does not have the offence power like No Hair nor Eden, but his healing technique is magnificent! But of course it would’ve been better if his offence power is as magnificent as his healing technique.

Dragging this battle against these Mermen could be dangerous, sooner or later Sheldon will run out of mana, and by that time we will be nothing but a pair of sheep in front of the tigers.

I brazen my heart and asked Sheldon.

“Do you know any other healing technique? I might be going quite reckless here; honestly speaking I don’t think I can beat these Mermen without having my HP being spammed heal.”

Yup, I said it. I’ll be attacking those Mermen instead. Even though my offence power isn’t that great, it is better than Sheldon who doesn’t have any offence ability other than using Eden’s cooking pan as a weapon. Plus, my attack speed is quite reliable as I got the additional stat given by my dagger.

“I do know a few other techniques…” He answered.

“Great, cast it now”

“>, >, >, >” Sheldon screamed out.

You are in allies positive aura range.

>

+50 HP regeneration every second.

>

+Invulnerable to any stunt or confusion.

Poison damage are reduced by 40%

>

5 000 Hp regeneration in 5 minutes.

>

64% chance to block 234 enemy daMage.

32% chance to counter-attack

As soon as he finished casting all of his spells. I hurled toward the charging Defender and clashed with it shield head on. My HP went downright red colored but went back green in less than 10 second as Sheldon healing buff were already stacked on me.

I activated invisibility, and sneak around the Defender’s back. Putting forth all of my strength and aiming for its nape hoping that critical hit would land, I thrust the dagger right at it target.

Bam!

I was thrown away instead when 4 consecutive fireballs hit me directly from my left side. It hurt so much that I subconsciously placed my palm on my scorched skin. The Defender didn’t let of the opening that I made and charged toward me, I was blasted away by the impact of the shield.

Looks like invisibility is not working against Spell Caster, and thanks to Sheldon healing technique, stun and confusion is not working on me anymore.

Or should I say, I was no longer experiencing the pain that stung my consciousness and left me stunned. Instead the impact felt like a huge teddy bear being thrown right at me. I can feel the impact, but it doesn’t hurt.

The sight of my HP bar going red and went straight back to green, and from green declined instantly to red colors a few time almost gave me a heart attack.

The Mermen warriors on the other hand were already cornering Sheldon. Sheldon managed to avoid their attack as the Mermen warrior movement were quite slow, not as slow as the Defender but for Sheldon who was already used to move agile and fast to treat his patient, the Mermen warrior movement were considered slow for him.

Spell Caster 2 finished casting its spell, another whip of lightning appeared and was lashed at my direction. I jump forward and moved to left side before the whip reached me. I then activated my invisibility once again and went to Sheldon aid.

I stabbed my dagger onto one of the Mermen warrior. The Mermen warrior who was already heavily injured from the friendly fire that was caused by Mermen Spell Caster 1 consecutive lightning whip that went about randomly, died immediately.

I grabbed the greyed warrior’s sword and swung it as hard as I can. The other Mermen warrior’s head fell down onto the ground before it greyed out. Both me and Sheldon was thrown away when the Defender charge right at us with its shield.

God I really hate the Defender.

If it wasn’t to Healing pillar I would’ve kept being in a stunned mode. The healing technique that Sheldon activated kept on pulling my hp from red to green zone. That’s it, when I got back to beginner town later I’m going to find a friend who have good healing technique.

Mermen Spell Caster 1 casted its fireballs.

By now I already understand the pattern of this Spell Caster. They can only cast 2 spell which is lightning whip and fireball, there are delay of 15 second to each skill so it alternating between those skill.

By the time it was chanting, Defender would come and charge at us to buy some times, keeping the Spell Caster casting undisturb-able. It was a truly a fearsome combo. But that was only if I don’t have Sheldon by my side.

With Sheldon healing technique, I can defeat it.

The dropped warrior sword was still in my hand. The Spell Caster 2 casted its lightning whips again. A bluish colored lightning whip came at me, but I didn’t evade it, more like I wasn’t planning to evade it.

I caught the whip with my palm. As the result, I was hit by electric shock. Looks like the whip is not something physical… it was only a current. Damn, I thought I can grab it or something.

Whoop!

I managed to evade the charging Defender again, but that was not the case for Sheldon. He clashed with the shield head on, and instead of getting thrown away. He fainted there and then.

All buffs and auras were cancelled out.

But it was my chance; the Defender was a few tenths of meter away from me and the Mermen Spell Caster 1 was still chanting its spell. I activated my invisibility again and faced the Mermen Spell Caster 1 head on.

Even though I knew that invisibility won’t work against Spell Caster. I still had it activated for critical hit chance.

I swung the sword at its head but the Mermen Spell Caster 1 evaded it by jumping backward. It then used its staff and used it like a golf stick and aimed for my leg. I step in forward and kick one of its legs and made it lose its balanced.

Spell Caster 1 fall on its ass.

I stretch my hand high into the sky with my sword, and sunk its tip into the Spell Caster head. It turned grey soon after. What looked like happened in a minute was only happened for a few second.

BAM!

5 consecutive fireballs were shot on my back. Once again my HP turned red; the fireballs burned my leather armour causing an intense pain throughout my back.

I turned on my invisibility again and disappear into the thin air before the Defender reach out to me. I evade the coming shield by moving a step aside. Realizing that it was not hitting anything, the Defender put on a dumbfounded looks and turn its head around searching for my presence.

As there was no longer Spell Caster 2 to mess with my nape stabbing activities. I took the Spell Caster 2 spear and threw it at the back of the Defender’s nape. The distance between us was only 3 meters so it was impossible for me not to get a bull’s eye.

The Defender turned grey and left nothing but EXP and loot.

Only one left!

Another consecutive shot of fireball was shot. I tried to evade it, but apparently the fireballs weren’t aimed at me. It was aimed at the unconscious Sheldon who was lying meekly on the ground!

Sheldon was blasted away 6 meters from his original location. He looked like limp seaweed that was thrown away.

Uhhhhhh!!! It must’ve hurt a lot! I mean, I’ll come to your aid now!

Did I run toward Sheldon direction? Pfttt of course no, this is the perfect chance for me to kill the Spell Caster 1. I activated invisibility, and reappear in front of the Spell Caster 1. But seemly that invisibility does not work against Spell Caster; the merman in front of me had already foreseen my movement and used its spear as a guard against me.

I jumped backward a few times and threw the sword that I had in hand instead and activated invisibility once again.

The merman parried it by hitting it away using its spear. By the time he parried it, I was already behind its back. I was about to stab the Spell Caster using my dagger when I realized 5 fireballs were aimed at me at point black direction.

I was blown away by the impact.

I can feel my baby face looks melting due to the heat, my bone were probably crushed as I was hit at point black and I slammed hard onto the ground from the impact. My body was heavily injured, I probably looked like those who was hit by extremely high voltage of electric current.

I tried to rise my hands up, but I wasn’t able to do so.

Weird enough I don’t feel any pain, I wonder was it because of it intense pain that I’m feeling that I don’t feel anything due to a certain chemical reaction, or was it because my pain receptor was burned along with my entire body?

Either way I was already dying.

The Spell Caster 1 moved towards me. It raised its spear high into the air and threw it right into my vital point. My heart!

I’m dead, probably in real life too.

You have died! 25% of your EXP will be deducted from your total exp to reach the next level!

***

The capsule burst out opened.

My whole body was trembling and my I was drenched in sweat, I think I just wet myself.

The last images of the Mermen throwing it spear right into my heart still stuck at my train of thought. It was like a short video that was set on repeat mode, and played continuously inside my mind.

The pain that I felt from having my heart stabbed with the spear still lingered in my mind. Though physically, I am all safe and dandy. After experiencing a surreal death I don’t think I can work up my courage to get inside the capsule once again.

That was what I supposed to feel, but it wasn’t like that.

Rather than being afraid, I just wanted to get back inside the game once again, because what was inside my mind was not fear, but rather an unknown feeling. I don’t know why but I just want to shred those Mermen along with No Hair altogether.

I got up from the capsule, took a quick shower for 5 minutes and get back inside the capsule. I’m going to kill each and every single bit of the Mermen! Even if I have to die many times!

And once again, I jumped into the capsule and got back on my ass.

***

Invisibility!

I activated my one and only active ability that I know. Creeping slowly while scouting the whole area, I moved on in try to search for Sheldon. I was revived at the Treatment Tent which Sheldon used to treat his patient. I was the only one there, I guess the patient are all healed up and by now fighting off the Mermen.

Mermen corpses were everywhere. Left side were Mermen, right side were Mermen, even in front of me were none other than Mermen, The Mermen corpse were almost looked like a lying silvers and gold just by the very thought of looting it later.

After a few more minutes walking, I finally arrived at the place where I was killed.

That shitty Spell Caster, where did it gone off to?

I wasted no time by staying around there, I continued on my way by getting to where No Hair and the others were. As I saw there was no corpse of Sheldon, he must be alive. Though I wonder how did he managed to not get killed by the Spell Caster as by the time I was killed he was still unconscious,

The bloody path gave away a foul stench of blood. I tried my best not to bother with the smell, but the stench was too strong. I wonder how did the developers even created a system that enable us to use our sense of smell here.

I picked up a sword, and a spear that was used by the Spell Caster. But then I decided to take the shield instead and decided to put away the spear. I will gladly pick you up later spear, but for now I’ll arm myself with these warrior and Defender item.

I moved out again. How I wish for all these greyed out Mermen would just be gone and left the loot alone. I can’t stand the scenery of it. Even though I am already used to the view of it, scenery and view is two entirely different things.

Thinking that it can’t be help, I covered my mouth and nose using my left palm.

Wuow!

Damn, the end of the sword almost touched my abs. Even though I was wearing leather armour, well… Half burnt leather armour, the thought of it grazing over my skill is still scary though.

Proceed with caution!

100 meters away from me I can already the ‘lively’ Mermen and No Hair with the other. I was about to kill those Mermen while being in an invisibility state, but halt all of my motor when I saw a certain monster which I knew very well.

The Mangdora Creep!

Well… What did we know; I might going to die a lot of times, not by the hand of the Mermen but instead, by the handy work of those trash talker Mangdora Creep.

You know what Mr. Developers and Story Planning board?

Fuck this shit! Fuck that shit! Fuck everybody! Fuck you until your birthday, even if your birthday was yesterday!

I mean, why now? Why the hell did you have to include the Mid-Boss Mangdora Creep into Human war against Mermen? You already made those Mermen so powerful; they even had a huge advantage with their numbers! Can’t you cut me some slack? I was just about to plan my revenge against those Mermen.

Look at me, I’m so weak… Well maybe you can say that it was partially my fault for being too greedy and invested all of my additional stat points into luck, but that is another story!

Okay, I think I’ll just log ou…

“Ichiroku! You regained your consciousness!”

...Ouuuuu? Did someone just called out to me?

“I’m here, behind you…”

Somebody just whispered into my left ear. I don’t know who you are but I need you to stop it! My ears are very sensitive and delicate part.

“Who’s there?” I positioned myself in my ‘battle stance’, gripping both of the sword and shield firmly, I scanned the whole area.

“It’s me Sheldon…”

“Sheldon? Where are you?”

“Right at you back...”

It was then that I felt a sudden sensation or rather presence emerged behind me.

“Whoa, you scared me!”

“Sorry, I was looking out the area.”

“What happened? Weren’t you supposed to be unconscious?”

“Well I did, but only I already regained my consciousness when you were fighting against the Spell Caster.”

You little! If you were conscious then why didn’t you activate your healing technique?! You got me killed back there you know! Do you know how it felt when a spear was stabbed into your heart? I almost wet myself!

I cursed him to my heart content, but of course I didn’t let the words out form my mouth.

“When I regain my consciousness I realized that I ran out of mana, I wasn’t even able to stand up. I didn’t bring any mana potion with me so I had to lie down and wait for my mana to regenerate.” Sheldon continued,

I’m sorry; I just cursed you without knowing the real situation.

“But then again, I’m amazed at your fighting spirit. You were injured badly by the Spell Caster fireballs, and here you are standing all fine and dandy. I thought you were already dead when I moved you tho the treatment tent before.”

“Wait… you moved me? You mean you were the one whom transported me from here to the treatment tent?”

“Yeah why?” Sheldon asked.

So, when I died I was considered as heavily injured. Sheldon just said that he was the one that moved me into the treatment room. What if I were to die in a normal hunting ground with no one there? Would I revive at the same place?

“Anyway, we had to move fast, we will kill the Mermen and left the Mangdora Creep to No Hair and the others. I’m sure they can handle the Mangdora Creep by their self. It would be impossible for us with low offence to fight those Mangdora Creep who have an absurd defensive power.” I shrugged off Sheldon question and told him our current situation.

“I think that would be a nice plan too… Honestly, I think we will hold them down more than helping them if we were to go there.”

You don’t even think twice before you said it huh? I knew that I was the one who said we can’t possibly beat the Mangdora Creep due to our low offence, But after hearing you saying it without any hesitation somehow made me feel sad.

“We just need to hold the Mermen down until the Subjugation Force come, they scout had reported that the subjugation force are 10 minutes away from here.”

What? Subjugation Force? They’re finally here? Great, now let me calculate my survival rate after the arrival of subjugation force…

IT’S OVER 9 000!

Well well... what do we know? Apparently those men in-charge of story board planning isn’t as stupid as I thought they were.