Leon almost pissed himself from fright when he saw the man that looked like a zombie grabbing his leg and pulling out a sword to kill him. The man seemed to be at his last breath since he lost a lot of blood but he was still alive enough to kill a weakling like Leon.
"I...must...complete the mission...for his..Majesty," he muttered with great difficulty and tried to pull Leon toward him.
The latter tried to resist with all of his force but he wasn't able to release the tight grip on his leg.
'What should I do? What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?' He worked his brain hard to find a way out of this. He wanted to call Acht or Tania so that they could come to save him but they had already gone far away from where he was and they wouldn't be able to reach him in time even if they heard his voice.
So, with great difficulty, he pulled out his weapon: A small self-defense dagger that he had on him for quite some time.
Then, he tried to stab the man's hand. But, at the last moment, when the blade was about to pierce the hand, he hesitated and stopped. If it was an animal, he may have been able to pull it off, but the fact that it was a human-made him lose his resolve.
The man saw this opportunity and slashed with his sword. Leon saw that and frantically jolted his leg to the side. Fortunately, he was able to dodge the sword but it was still able to scratch his leg.
"Ugh!!!" The boy groaned in pain as tears started trickling down his face.
'Didn't I already make up my mind not to be a coward anymore? Dammit!' He gritted his teeth in frustration.
He thought that he was already past the point of being fearful of anything that threatens him even if it wasn't that much of a threat in the first place.
But, he now saw that all of that was nothing but him basking in the temporary moment of adrenaline rush. Seeing himself improving when he didn't have any evidence of that was just wrong and he experienced that first hand at this moment.
'No! I swore to myself to change! I can't back down now!'
Then, with an extremely serious look, he gripped the dagger harder and shouted at the top of his lungs. His hand moved with determination and he stabbed the man's hand.
"Ughhh!!" The man yelled in pain and released his grip on Leon's leg. The boy took that opportunity and stood up.
Then, instead of running, he took another choice that will change his future forever. He approached the man with hesitant but steady steps.
His eyes looked at the man who was already dying. His eyes shifted back to his bloodied dagger. Following that, he bent down and stabbed the man's stomach.
He didn't stop at that, he pulled the dagger and stabbed again and again and again...he didn't want to stop at all. He felt like if he stopped, he would lose his mind so he kept stabbing.
"Die! Die! Die! Die!" He kept repeating the same word endlessly. His eyes had already lost their focus and his brain ceased to function. He stabbed the corpse so many times that his stomach became a bloody mess of organs and flesh.
But, as he was about to stab again, a hand stopped his arm. He tried to jolt it off the grip but he couldn't do so he looked at the culprit with clear anger.
Acht looked at Leon's state with a complicated gaze. All of his body was covered in blood, his green hair turned red and his eyes looked like that of a maniac rather than a sane person.
"Leave me be!!" Leon shouted loudly.
But, Acht obviously didn't let him off and only gazed at him coldly.
"That's enough." He only muttered two words but they were more than enough to show his strong aura.
"No! I need to kill him! I nee-"
*Slap*
The crispy sound of a slap suddenly echoed in the area. Acht had no other choice but to do so or Leon would keep acting like that.
"I said...enough."
This time, Leon seemed to feel the gravity of his situation. His listless eyes suddenly regained their vigor and immediately started crying.
"What did I do?" He muttered as he covered his face with his own bloodied hands.
Tania looked at this with a complicated gaze too. She didn't know how to react to such a thing.
"Let's go...He will need some alone time." Acht tapped her shoulder and walked away.
He knew that there was nothing that he could say to calm Leon down so he decided that letting him come to terms with his new self is essential.
He had experienced that before. That heart-wrenching experience of killing for the first time. That sadness and guilt that follows it and the nightmares that he suffered from were all still vivid in his mind.
But, he was able to stand up again from his sadness, and soon killing became something he does on a daily basis without batting an eye.
"Sigh, the shit that I have to deal with..." He shook his head in exasperation.
After taking some distance away from Leon. Acht sat down to think about what he needed to do. Now, that he murdered knights from some kind of kingdom, they will probably be after his head. It was inevitable so he didn't feel annoyed. But, he was slightly worried that they might send some very strong individuals after him.
Until now, he only met people that he could beat quite easily if you don't include Scarlett and Thyrus. But, he was aware that he was still very weak by this world's standards.
"I need to get stronger quickly."
So, he looked at Tania and asked her to pull out all of the soul stones they collected until that point. She accepted and soon a pile of stones appeared in front of him.
He then separated it into two and gave half to Tania. He took the other half and sat down to consume it. He could absorb the soul force in the air but that would take way longer than doing it by absorbing the soul force inside the soul stones.
"Can you guard me until I finish? I will then let you absorb yours."
"Mm," She nodded and stood in front of him like a robotic guard not moving an inch. Only her head moved left and right to check her surroundings.
Acht watched his weird partner and thought.
'She's gonna be fine...I think.'
Then, his focus shifted to the soul stones. They had killed a lot of Nagas in the dungeon. So much so that the pile he had now exceeded him in height even though it was only half of the real number.
He took one stone and started absorbing the energy inside. The Nagas were weak so he could easily deal with them without doing anything excessive.
'This dungeon is probably a G-rank dungeon just like the other one I entered.'
It took him 30 seconds to absorb the whole soul stone. He then threw the now useless stone and took another one to absorb it.
Then, he repeated this action for the next hour or so. Each time, his soul force was increasing slowly.
From level 6 he jumped to level 7 and then level 8. In normal cases, passing three levels like that with only that amount of soul stones was basically impossible since a good chunk of the energy inside the soul stone dissipates during the consumption.
But, in Acht's case, he's able to efficiently consume 100% of the energy without any waste. This gave him a huge advantage over other awakeners since he will need fewer soul stones to pass from one level to another.
As he completely consumed the last soul stone, he had already broken through level 8 and entered level 9 which meant he was only one step away from breaking through the white soul.
He exhaled a long breath and checked his body.
'This...is amazing.' He thought with a surprised look. His strength had increased by leaps and bounds that he almost couldn't recognize himself.
He then stood up and made some light moves to see how much he improved. Because of the level up, his muscles had become more sturdier and flexible. His speed also increased a lot.
Tania also felt the change in his aura and looked at him with sparkles in her eyes. He was slowly turning into something even more important for Tania and her intense desire to see him in action with his amazing strength became even stronger.
She was already imagining how she should plot her next move to watch Acht save her again or do anything that she considered 'cool'.
'Acht...amazing~'
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