Chapter 135- Top 10-Ranker Appeared? (Part 1)
The moment Rin heard those words, all the tension that built up in every fiber of his body relaxed and he finally took a small breath before he smiled softly at the woman. It was a smile of genuine relief that a huge problem was evaded but in the woman's eyes, it looked like a flirtatious yet extremely dazzling smile that took her breath away.
She kept staring at Rin's stupidly handsome face not daring to avert her eyes for a second. His hypnotizing purple eyes were like two strong magnets and she was a small, weak piece of metal.
"Mmm, can I leave?" Rin asked when he found the woman irresponsive.
"A-Ah? Where? Ehem! I mean, yes, please." She spoke with a slightly higher voice than usual before she signaled for the next person to stop ahead.
Rin nodded his head and walked away before he stood somewhere he could watch everything ensue while not needing to bother with the huge noise penetrating his poor ears.
'I can't believe that worked.' Rin thought as he looked at his hand.
There, right in the middle of his hand, there was a small black dot that looked like a dark hole rather than a colored part of his skin. He used his shadow manipulation to create that hole in his hand instead of the ground. But, what mattered more than that was what was peeking from inside the hole.
There, he could see a small, dark part of what seemed to be the tip of a bird's wing. It was the Hybrid clawing bird's wing.
'So, if I kill a monster and turn it into one of my summons with Ruler's army skill then it will keep its true element affinity intact. That's why I was able to make the orb think I had an affinity with air. Just a small touch from the summon was more than enough.'
He smiled as he closed the palm of his hand and opened it again after a moment. The shadow part had completely vanished from the palm of his hand.
Then, he opened his stats window to check something.
*[Shadow Manipulation]
[Rank: ???]
[Level: 4]
[You are the ruler of the shadows and the sole successor of darkness. The night is your domain and the light is your ally. Where bright light exists, dark shadows are present.
*(First Phase: Shadow Bringer) You can control your shadow and the shadow of your enemy to some extent. It depends on your mana, strength, and dexterity.]
'It leveled up twice? Why?' Rin thought.
[You made use of two skills and linked their properties to make a successful plan. You also discovered new ways to manipulate your shadow elements so the system gave it an appropriate breakthrough.]
'One more level and the skill will evolve right?' Rin asked.
[Yes, but bear in mind, host. The higher the level, the harder for you to make it level up any further. For you to make a breakthrough in levels, you need to make a breakthrough in your ability to manipulate the shadows.]
'Mmm, I know. I will come up with more ways to make it more stronger and useful. Besides… I can feel that my control over the element became way smoother and easier. I think I have more space for imagination.'
As he kept speaking with his system like that, something odd was happening far away from Rin. In the section assigned to guards and other working personnel, a weird thing was occurring.
"Man, can you stop fidgeting like a small girl wanting to pee? You keep hitting my fucking back with your leg."
"T-That's not my leg…" The man said.
"Huh?"
"J-Just leave me the fuck alone, bastard!!!" The man shouted as if he was on the verge of losing it.
His eyes looked bloodshot red and his face was as pale as a sheet of paper. His breathing was also ragged as if he had come out of a marathon not long ago.
"Huh?! Are you retarded?" The guard could only ask with a confused yet also angry look.
"Yeah! I am losing it! Mind your fucking business?!"
"Now it is mine!!"
*BANG*
Without hesitating, the guard sent a punch flying toward the fidgety man's face, hitting him square in the jaw. The hit was strong enough to make him fall on the ground.
"What is going on there?" The other guards that were responsible for organizing the whole process noticed the commotion and came rushing toward them.
The fidgety man saw them and in the midst of his weird state quickly sprang up on his legs and started running away.
His expression was abnormal as if fear was consuming his own soul. Even if he saw a ghost, he would most likely never show such a terrified look in his eyes.
"Hey, you, wait!!" The guards shouted and ran after him.
A huge chase started, and people were confused about the reason for the man's escape.
"Catch him! He is acting suspicious!!"
10 guards were chasing the man who was running at his top speed, passing through the lines and quickly heading toward the exit of the training grounds.
There, two more guards saw him and tried to stop him. But…
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!"
Pulling out his sword, the man swung his sword quickly, slicing one of the guard's arms off.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" The guard fell down on the ground, crying from the sheer agony and pain before he lost consciousness.
Then, without hesitation stabbed to the side but ended up missing his target, barely touching the hem of the guard's clothes, slicing it open.
"You fucking…" Before the latter could even do anything, the man dashed away as fast as he could.
Leaving the training grounds, swarms of guards followed him relentlessly. They even tried to hit him with their spells and even throw things at him but he was just running like there is no tomorrow. In fact, because of his recklessly high speed, his muscles tore and contorted painfully. He was overusing his body and harming it in the process.
As the man took a turn around one of the main streets, he saw someone standing in front of him.
'A small girl?' The man thought as he dashed toward her. The girl was indeed quite young, with a very small frame and a small teddy bear in her hand that seemed to be at least half her size. She wore cute clothes akin to a fairytale princess in real life.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!!!" He shouted.
But, the girl didn't even look at him let alone listen to his words. She seemed to be fully focused on her teddy bear and ignoring everything else around her.
When the man saw that, he decided to kick her away and continue running. His crazed mind didn't even contemplate whether hitting a small child was a good idea or not.
But, before he could even start executing his mad idea, he felt something weird inside of him. Ignoring the mind-chilling fear he was feeling and the numbness that came with it, there was also another feeling that he ignored the whole time he was looking at this little girl.
'Wait… What is a little girl doing here?'
That idea made his eyes widen for a split second then…
*BOOOM* *SPLASH*
His body exploded without any trigger for that. Blood, broken shards of bones, and even bits and pieces of shredded flesh splashed everywhere, coating the whole street in an ominous red color.
The guards that were behind the man froze in complete and utter shock. Their minds couldn't even process what happened to the man. Blood splashed on them too but they couldn't even care about it as all of their focus was directed toward the small human standing near this gruesome mess that was a living creature not even a second ago.
Even though the girl was the closest to the explosion, not even a trickle of blood fell on her or her dress.
Then, under their watchful and horrified gazes, the girl approached the main torso of the man and bent down looking at it closely. She had deliberately left this part intact for one single reason.
"Heart… Silika, you want the heart?" She murmured to her teddy bear.
Then, she put the teddy bear near her ear as if she was listening to what it was going to say.
After that, she nodded her head and then pulled the teddy bear out.
"Here, eat. It's enough to satisfy your hunger."
Approaching the teddy bear from the torso, she shoved it inside the torso, directly destroying the heart. After that, she started moving the teddy bear inside the hollow torso as if she was trying to discover the inside of it.
"Eat… Eat, it's delicious." The girl's voice was cute yet for an odd reason, the guards could only feel a bone-chilling shiver when they heard it. It wasn't cold or distant but instead sounded so emotionless and devoid of anything humane that they could barely believe it came out of a child.
"Eat to your heart's content."
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