*Ping!*

[SYSTEM]

Acquired: [Killer] Title.

*Ping!*

[SYSTEM]

You have leveled up to level 3!

You have leveled up to level 4!

+1 skill points

You have leveled up to level 5!

HP Permanently increased by 100

MP Permanently increased by 100

STA Permanently increased by 100

You have leveled up to level 6!

+1 skill points

You have leveled up to level 7!

You have leveled up to level 8!

+1 skill points

You have leveled up to level 9!

You have leveled up to level 10!

+1 skill points

HP Permanently increased by 100

MP Permanently increased by 100

STA Permanently increased by 100

Acquired: [Human Adaptability] Passive Skill

[Staff Proficiency 1] leveled up to [Staff Proficiency 2]

[Dual Wield Staff 1] leveled up to [Dual Wield Staff 2]

The lifeless carcass of the knight held by what looks like the twisted form of a titan’s hand rising from the ground dropped its sword.

A loud metallic sound clangs as the dropped sword hits the base of the grasping rocks. Despite the relatively large area, the total silence that the sound broke felt like it could be heard from miles away.

Suddenly, the earthen formation began shrinking down, retreating back to the earth from whence it came, leaving the broken body of the knight onto the ground, laid bare for all to see its disturbing form.

Reinhard couldn’t stop the shaking of his left arm as he lowers his earth staff. Despite this trembling however, his facial expression and posture remains unfazed.

He killed a person.

A human being, who probably has a wife and a child waiting for him back at wherever kingdom they came from. He killed him, a person who may have just been following the orders given to him by his superiors.

And yet, the feeling of empathy, of remorse towards the dead knight, suddenly disappeared from Reinhard. He didn’t know why, nor he even bothered to know why, it could have just been the effect of the [Human Adaptability] skill he just acquired earlier, forcing him to mentally adapt to the situation, or it could mean that he himself has already been desensitized by the circumstances. Whatever may the reason be, the truth is there: He didn’t care,

He didn’t care… yet why is his left hand still shaking? Why is his grip on the earth staff still so needlessly tight? Why does his left arm feel so heavy, making him struggle to raise the staff once more?

No, this isn’t the time for pity.

He raised his earth staff once again, pointing it to another knight. He didn’t even bother to see how much mana the staff has remaining.

“Yiiiah!”

A grunt came from his left side. As he looked on that direction, he saw a spear, flying towards him as well as the knight that's in a position which gave away that it was that man that just threw it.

With one quick motion, he swiftly pointed the earth staff towards the flying spear and conjured an earthen shield to block it. It looked like he wouldn’t make it as the spear was flying at a relatively fast speed, but he was able to block it after all.

The round earthen shield, possibly as big as his entire torso, suddenly materialized out of thin air from the magic circle that the staff produced. The spear stuck onto the shield and even penetrated into it for a couple of inches before finally stopping.

He quickly “de-casted” the earth shield, making it disappear to nothingness. The spear that was stuck on it fell down to the ground point-first, sticking to the soil below.

Afterwards, he looked at the knight that just threw the spear. His face was a mixture of regret and disbelief. But then it suddenly got replaced with the look of anguish and horror as the earthen hand crushed him. Another knight has once again fallen lifelessly onto the ground.

*Ping!*

[SYSTEM]

You have leveled up to level 11!

You have leveled up to level 12!

+1 skill points

This time, Reinhard closely watched the knight as he struggled to free himself from the hold. It surprised him how this and the previous knight’s HP bar went down so quickly, but then he noticed that a brown box was present beneath the knight’s name.

[Constrained]

“Constrained…”

[SYSTEM]

[Constrained] debuff is applied when a target’s movements is being limited by outside forces. Targets wearing heavy armor takes quadruple the damage from the initial effect.

“I see. So that’s why they’re just dropping like flies that’re getting squashed.”

Fraenis on the other hand did nothing but watch while dumbfounded as the scenario unfolds before her. All she sees is Reinhard raising his staff then all of a sudden a rock mound rises up and instantly kills the knights…

As the second victim falls to the ground, the four knights looked at each other in disbelief. And then, as if they were able to read each other’s minds, they all nodded at each other and simultaneously attacked, heading straight for Reinhard.

This reminded Reinhard of that time with the three snakes yesterday, however unlike that time, there’s not much room for movement as the terrain is filled with trees and shrubs. So instead of moving, he casted the earthen shield and placed it in front of him while still having an opening to cast with his other staff, and then he waited. The four knights gradually began to converge towards Reinhard, three level 15’s and one level 17.

He readied his venom staff, waiting for the right chance to present itself.

When the knights got about two meters from him, he quickly used his venom staff, which immediately sprayed a burst of venom in a cone, hitting all the knights and pushing them away a meter or so, knocking them all down to the ground.

Seeing this, Fraenis quickly loosened her shortbow in a blinding speed. A volley of arrows punched through one of the knight’s exposed parts such as the joint and groin area of the armor.

Reinhard on the other hand had just finished quickly crushing one of the level 15 knights that had been knocked down.

*Ping!*

[SYSTEM]

You have leveled up to 13!

You have leveled up to 14!

+1 skill points

[Staff Proficiency 2] leveled up to [Staff Proficiency 3]

[Dual Wield Staff 2] leveled up to [Dual Wield Staff 3]

The one that Fraenis is shooting has now also been killed. However, Reinhard immediately regretted his decision of killing this one instead of the one that Fraenis killed as it was the level 17 one. If it was Reinhard that killed him, he could have gotten a lot more exp than what was given to him by the level 15 knight.

“That just leaves these two, huh…”

Sparing no effort, he crushed another one of the remaining level 15 knight, dropping him to the ground limply after.

*Ping!*

[SYSTEM]

You have leveled up to 15!

HP Permanently increased by 100

MP Permanently increased by 100

STA Permanently increased by 100

The last one, seeing that there’s no way for him to win alone, tried to flee. He dropped his sword and helmet in an attempt to lessen the weight but was ultimately crushed by the earth anyway.

“I didn’t level up from that? Oh well.”

He looked at how his earth staff’s mana was going and saw that it’s at 42/100 and continuously regenerating while his venom staff is at 94/100 which is also regenerating.

Fraenis however looked around suspiciously, trying to see if any other knights would dare to come to them, but she found out that the rest of the knights are actually currently storming the Garden.

“Hey, why isn’t Tylla closing the barrier?”

Reinhard immediately asked Fraenis upon seeing the knights entering the barrier en masse.

“No… no way…”

She suddenly said in disbelief without replying to Reinhard’s question.

“Tylla! Tylla, where are you!?”

She then rushed towards the barrier, running as fast as her nimble feet could take her. Reinhard, confused at what’s happening, had no choice but to follow her.

While running towards the barrier, Reinhard saw that near the hut was the dryad woman that was previously taken hostage. She’s lying on the ground, in her own puddle of blood, eyes wide open reflecting fear and pain. She’s dead.

Reinhard was instantly filled with grief, however, he can mourn the dead later. For now, the safety of those still alive comes first.

Along the way, the two of them could also see numerous piles of knights with massive holes the size of a small plate on their chests littering the area like gravestones made of men.

In any other circumstance, Reinhard would have stayed and wondered what may have caused these peculiar deaths of the knights, but now was not the time.

Not soon after, they finally reached the entrance of the village, the barrier still held open. There were no longer any living knights outside so they managed to reach there unhindered. However, as they approach the barrier, what they saw beside the tree that marked the entrance was a bleeding body of a little girl with short, green hair. Her right hand is placed on her bloodied stomach, presumably in a vain attempt to stop the bleeding.

Fraenis immediately knelt beside her without hesitation and held her head in her arms, not even looking towards the village that’s currently being sacked by foreign soldiers. Men, women and children, all dying both inside and outside of their tree houses. It appears that these knights were ordered to spare no one.

“N-no…”

Fraenis said softly. Her voice being barely audible, as if something was clogging her throat.

“Hey… Tylla… Wake up…”

*Sobs*

Unable to contain herself anymore, Fraenis bursts out into tears.

“No, you can’t go… You need to close the gate! Didn’t you tell me that you’d be the gatekeeper forever? Didn’t you?”

She said as tears drop down from her eyes uncontrollably.

“No… Not like this…”

Reinhard too was visibly disturbed by what’s happening. He knows how it feels to die. The pain, the shock, the realization that this is the end of your story… but most importantly, the final seconds before you lose consciousness where you desperately cling on to your last remaining breath, hoping that all of this was just a bad dream and you’d wake up in your bed, all safe and sound.

He could only look at the body of Tylla with great sorrow and anguish.

Suddenly, Tylla’s body started to sink to the ground. Roots and bramble grew out of the soil and wrapped her body, as if hands and fingers of the earth dragging her down beneath the land.

Fraenis immediately let go of her hold to Tylla.

“zhe’ Vek-gha”

She uttered one last time after wiping off the tears from her eyes. The two of them watched as Tylla’s body slowly gets consumed by nature.

“Endow the land.”

She added as she turns around to look at Reinhard after Tylla’s body fully sinks into the soil. Her sorrowful, depressed face just moments earlier have now disappeared, although it’s still too farfetched to call her happy. It’s more of an expression of acceptance. The feeling when you let someone go even though it hurts and you would rather not, but there’s nothing you can do so you just accept the circumstances.

Her face stayed like that for only a split second though, before returning back to her anger-filled expression as she looks towards the village.

She picked up her shortbow and knocked an arrow onto it.

“Sorry for taking so long. Let’s go.”

Her ice cold voice said. It was so chilling that even Reinhard almost got scared of her.

Reinhard looked back at the dryad that was previously held hostage and saw that her body too has disappeared, leaving only the puddle of blood behind.

“I see. They return to that which gave birth do them… Perhaps this is for the best.”

Having come to terms with their swelling grief and sorrow, the two of them rushed inside the village with the full intention of killing every single offender that they see.