Chapter 12

Crack!

At the twenty-second kill, Rain’s sword broken apart. However, he didn’t stop, using his claws and skills, he finally managed to get out the area of the Ground Worms. Though wounds and scratches could be seen on his body, and even his clothes have holes and cuts on it, fortunately, there were no clear wounds that seemed fatal and serious.

He was not bitten but the acid spraying from their mouths and bodies was completely terrifying.

Rain leaned down on a large tree when he finally felt safe after that ordeal.

Rain looked at his armor and couldn’t help but smile bitterly. Most of his Bone armor had been eroded by acid and even large cracks could be seen on it. It was obvious that it was beyond repairable.

Sighing, Rain decided to stay and rest for a while. Rain leaned against a giant tree without a care in the world. Its giant roots twisted all around, creating a perfect little gap for his quite slender body to slide into. Though, a little cramped, it was quite a good place for hiding.

He then took out a small bottle of water from his backpack. He was really thankful for being able to bring this plastic bottle, if not he would surely need to find a way to store water every time. Then, he turned towards his new spoils, feeling excited.

Without hesitation, he had eaten the rabbit raw, without even cooking it. After all, fire in this place is like inviting a goddamn Godzir*. Still, lately, he was surprisingly fine even though he had been eating raw meat and bones up until.

Human resilience sure is scary~

With a refreshed throat and full stomach, Rain sighs in happiness. He then slowly savored the feeling of some kind of strange energy that surges through him, every time he was able to obtain some kind of skill. And this time was no exception. But what kind of ability it was, it something to look forward to.

Every now and then, a slight breeze of wind would rustle his obsidian colored hair, even washing his expression into that of calm and relaxing. However, Rain’s rest didn’t last longer than he expected.

“This fucking place!!!”

Rain can’t help but cursed out loud.

As Rain made his stances, clenching his right fist while a sharp bone stake on his left hand, he stared angrily at the monster that had disturbed his rest just by appearing all of a sudden.

It was a monster that looked like a pig walking on two legs. It held a rather good quality long sword in one hand, unexpectedly much better than his former weapon, and it was even wearing armor, though simple with just a breastplate and greaves, it's metallic nonetheless. This monster was much better to equip than he ever was.

Seeing this, even Rain felt bad. Now his sword was already a goner, and he was almost barehanded. However, he has his claws and bone stakes which he can use as a dagger.

Judging by the way it glared in his direction while breathing heavily through its nose, it was definitely not friendly.

Yep, not friendly… stereotypical monsters that attack human beings in sight.

However, the same held true for Rain as well. Rain didn’t like the way it looked as if he was an expensive steak. Rain’s brows furrowed and his gaze narrowed. He stared at every movement the Orc Warrior before him, did.

All of a sudden, the Orc kicked off from the ground. Its speed was much faster than him. However—

The Orc Warrior was strong, indeed, but it was far slower than Lafetti. Rain who had been fighting against her in real combat as a practice can easily follow through what the Orc will do next. The Orc instantly shortened the distance to Rain and slashed its sword at him; naturally, his body and physical ability were stronger than Rain. It let out a wild scream, raised the sword above its head, and swung it down.

Under ordinary circumstances, it was a blow that should have cleaved his body in two while creating a spray of blood. However, using [Agility Ex] to increase his speed and perception, Rain warded the disorderly slash from the Orc, which comes at him like an avalanche with but a slight slant of his Bone Stake.

The timing and the angle was perfect, even Lafetti might even exclaim in praise in such perfectness.

The Sword seemed to have created a spark as the blade slid down on Bone Spike’s surface. However, the Bone was truly tough, as it still didn’t break.

Rain didn’t know what kind of Monster owned such a Bone but it must have been very powerful. It even took a very, very long time in sharpening it. Even Lafetti’s magic sword couldn’t easily break it with just one slash, much less a normal sword like the Orc’s?

The Orc showed an astonished face at Rain, who parried its attack easily without any wasted movement. It surely didn’t expect this harmless, weak-looking human boy to block its attack.

The Orc snorted several times as if it was dissatisfied and tried to force its way through but Rain lashed his leg activating [Lashing Tail Kick], kicking the Orc.

Baang! However, the kick was blocked by its armor, and even Rain’s leg felt numb. Rain grit his teeth in pain and clenched his fist, but the Orc didn’t wait for him to attack again as it snorted in anger and slashed its sword again.

Rain immediately duck and rolled away, dodging the sword by hair’s breadth. He then distanced himself from the Orc for an instant and then lunged at it from a low stance, almost like crawling on the ground. He struck at its exposed neck with his bone stake from below, like the fish jumping against the rapids.

Wooosh. However, the Orc’s bulky arm swept towards him causing Rain to abandon his attack. With a side block of his arm that looked like a log swung at him, Rain managed to stop the blow using [Harden] and used the attack’s force to propel himself away.

Rain’s body lightly floated from the impact.

With the Orc’s superior strength, even with [Harden] Rain felt as if he was rammed by a truck and he was sent flying away.

The distance between them opened for a brief moment.

“Roooooaaaarrr!!”

The Orc roared in annoyance.

“You’re the wimp, you fucking pig!!”

Rain who, for some strange reason could understand the Orc’s language somewhat, though slightly incoherent, still heard the word wimp from the Orc’s mouth. Incensed, he felt somewhat humiliated by being looked down by a fucking walking pig!

“Bone Spikes!!”

Rain slammed his hand on the ground and activated his skills. Bone spikes immediately appeared under the Orc’s feet and a painful cry echoed in the forest.

The spikes pierced through its feet and legs, causing the Orc to roll on the ground leaking in blood.

Seeing its pitiful condition, Rain raised his hand towards the Orc; “Lightning Bolt!”

Whhiiz! Cackled! Booom!

The next moment, a golden light covered his sight. What was shot out was a golden lightning bolt that looked like a golden snake dancing in the air. The Orc that was trying to stand up amidst the pain was struck the mercilessly.

The Orc once again let out a painful cry and burnt smell emitted out from it, spreading in the air.

The Orc, with smoke rising from it, fell down onto the ground with white eyes, twitching.

“O M G,” Rain smiled wryly, but his expression beamed in excitement. After all, even though he possesses supernatural skills, but he never had such magic-esque skill, despite always wanting to use magic.

Whenever he saw Lafetti creating water blob using magic, he always felt envious about it. He also wanted to use one; Fire, Water, Wind, or even Earth, he wanted to use such kind of magic. And now, he can finally create one—and a lightning bolt at that.

It was one of those, ‘I want to use magic skill list’. Lightning bolt, thunder strike, Lightning Chain, controlling and emitting out electric sparks with bare hands… ooooh, that would be amazing!

Although it was not truly one of those magic systems, rather it was a just a Monster Skill, even still it can pass as one.

Humans can’t use a monster skill. So if someone saw him using it, he would appear as if he was a magic-user with a Variant Element; [Lightning].

According to Sylphy, the word electricity doesn’t exist in this world. And plasma or electricity that people emitted out was seen as [Lightning] entirely. And it’s a Variant Element, along with [Ice], [Gravity], [Blood] and more strange elements outside the main ones; [Fire], [Water], [Wind], [Earth], [Dark], and [Light].

Rain stared at his palms. These slender hands. The calluses that remained due to the training and swing of a sword every day, it was vividly exposed. The hands that he was already used to seeing. Nothing had changed. But, it came out.

From this hand, a lightning bolt came out.

[Lightning Bolt] a somewhat lower-ranked than the [Lightning Rabbit]’s [Lightning Strike], its power obviously weaker, still, it was an awesome ability. Although it was just a Monster Skill, hence, he cannot use any other Lightning Spell aside from it, it was still cool seeing a lightning bolt coming from his hand.

Rain felt elated. However, suddenly he felt drained. His head somewhat dizzy before fading away.

“That was…”

[Master, it’s Mana deficiency effect,]

As if noticing Rain’s confusion, Sylphy’s voice appeared.

“Mana deficiency effect?”

[Indeed. Master’s new Magic Skill consumes too much power. And with Master’s current Mana, it took quite a lot. According to the amount reduced, perhaps, Master can cast this Magic skill for only three to four times before completely depleting it.]

“Ah, am I that weak?” Rain smiled bitterly. However, Sylphy actually didn’t share the same thought.

[Master, in fact, it’s already incredible that Master can use such a Magic Skill. Master must not forget but Master has not yet been baptized by Magic Power, hence Master should not have been able to possess a tiny amount of Magic Power at all. Anyway, once Master has been baptized by it, awakening Master’s Magic Potential, it would surely skyrocket!]

“I see…” Rain let out a sigh of relief. It would be a blow to him if he found out he has such weak magic power.

[Lightning Bolt] is already an inferior skill to [Lightning Strike]. If he can raise the skill until it evolved into [Lightning Strike], wouldn’t he be unable to use it?

That would be disastrous…!

Rain smiled wryly, realizing how weak he still was. Then, looking at the twitching Orc, he shrugged his shoulders and walked over, picking up the Orc’s long sword. Due to the Orc’s height, the long sword felt better in his hand rather than the short sword he was using before.

“This is better,” Rain nodded his head.

He was just worrying about a weapon, but it seems like the Gods still love him, after all. He had brought a new and even better weapon than Rain’s original sword. Stab! Rain turned towards the twitching Orc that seemed to be slowly recovering.

It’s quite tenacious… he frowned and stabbed the sword on its chest, killing it completely.

However, as Rain was about to sigh in relief after a fight, at this moment—the nearby undergrowth suddenly became noisy. Not long after, something appeared in front of him and Rain’s expression completely fell.

“I officially hate this forest!! Damn it!!”

Jiri, Jiri, the sound of scraping the soil was heard everywhere. And in just a few minutes, several monsters appeared, surrounding Rain from every direction. It seems like he’s been surrounded… no, not just ‘seems like’ but he is truly surrounded.

Four legs, two thin and sharp forearm, plus two huge eyeballs. Its entire body was covered with a blood-red color carapace. If one looked closely, this figure reminds others of ants. If not for their size almost reaching a meter, and there were even some who almost reached two meters. Also, the fact that it used its thin waist as support when it lifted its upper body and straightened its back.

“Another one appeared when I thought I can finally relax, and it looks like it even brought some friends!”

Rain muttered, somewhat annoyed as he made his stance with the long sword.

[Killer Ant]

Sylphy muttered with a dark voice.

[They are individually weak, Master with just most at Lv1. However, they are one of those, which people dislike fighting the most. Their numbers, enhanced strength, and hard shells make them extremely troublesome opponents, Master. So be careful! If possible, a retreat for now.]

“I think the same as well… however; I don’t think that’s possible seeing the current situation…”

Rain smiled bitterly.

However, at this moment, a large shadow covered him.

Crap—!! Rain cursed under his breath as he hurriedly dives in the ground, and a three-meters tall ant dropped down on Rain’s former position. Aty the same time, as if taking the attack as the signal for battle, the dozens of Killer Ants rushed towards him in frenzy.

Rain hurriedly used [Leap] and jumped in the air, trying to break out from the encirclement.

“Cryaaaah!!”

Rain swept his legs mid-air, using [Lashing Tail Kick] at the giant ant that jumped at the same time with him. However, he was attacked by another ant and was sent flying.

“Gaha?!” Rain spouted a mouthful of blood. “Damn you!!”

Too many… Rain furrowed his brows. There are actually more than ten Killer Ants surrounding him. Although most of them are Lv1, the sheer number alone is already beyond his league.

There were even Lv2 elites. If Rain was a normal warrior with his current level, he would have been a cold body a long time ago. He was only able to fight monsters up until now because of his plundered abilities. However, even with them alone, this kind of group is already beyond him.

The Killer Ants revealed sinister and ferocious expressions, saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths, as though it had been ages since their last meal. They stared at Rain as if he was an expensive steak.

Rain took a deep breath and took a step back, however, his back had already reached the large tree behind him.

There’s no way to run…!

[Master… should I…]

“No, I leave that as a last resort. For now, let’s just test how far I can go with my current abilities.”

Rain refused Sylphy’s takeover. Although he would perhaps have a high chance of retreating safely. However, the side effects are just too serious. And besides, Rain didn’t want to depend on her too much. He wanted to become strong that Lafetti would be proud of him.

But he would not truly become strong if he always depends on other people.