Chapter 25
Cain had left the two girls at the inn as he raced through the night streets, his destination is not the lord mansion but instead the city plaza! There lays his ticket to the lord’s mansion!
Making sure to stay hidden in the shadows, he made his way until he reached an abandoned well hidden behind one of the stalls in the plaza! The Well was covered by a large wooden plank as veins grew over it!
‘It must have been closed for decades!’
Cain slowly opened the lid making sure to not make a lot of noise, At some point, he even used [Soundless]!
Opening it didn’t take long and Cain didn’t waste time, hopping right in and closing the lid behind him!
The lord’s family, like any other noble family, were afraid of being attacked and killed in a war! that’s why the mansion had a secret exit to allow the lord and his family to run in case of an emergency!
The secret exit leads into a cave system that extends until the city’s outskirts! Luckily this Well is connected to the same cave system! Cain and the other people who survived the Catastrophe found it after the fact as they were searching for survivors!
As he reached the bottom of the well, [Darkvision] with this Cain could see in the darkness.
His destination shouldn’t be that far away as he is already close to the mansion, all he had to do was make his way through the dangerous cave below!
‘They didn’t think about this very well!’ Cain said to himself as he spotted some slimes, rats, and what looked like alligators.
Slimes and rats were quickly dispatched with his sword which left the alligators.
The alligators were chilling by a small pond that was leftover from the stream that fed the Well in the past. On a close inspection, they can’t be normal alligators as they had four eyes and spiked tails!
Cave alligators are a type of monster that lives inside caves, topping the food chain there! Adventurers rarely run onto them but they were still widely known! The reason for that was that they were stable monsters in the dungeons, you can almost swear you will have to fight them at least once when exploring a dungeon!
Cain knew how to fight them so they shouldn’t be a problem!
1, 2, 3! ‘Just three it is doable!’
[Short invisibility] The monsters could see in the dark so Cain had to go invisible to surprise them.
Taking quick steps, Cain stabbed the first alligator between its scales close to the neck. [Lightning grasp] using the first tier spell to electrocute the monster causing its body to shake violently, exposing its soft stomach! Cain finished it by giving its organs a taste of fresh air!
Of course, the other two didn’t stand still and charged at Cain the moment they saw him appear!
[Lesser Empowerment], [Swiftness], [Enchanting: Ringing Sword].
VROOOOOOOM! Cain’s sword rumbled as he dogged the two alligators. His quick swordwork had left one of them missing a jaw, Blood splashed and Cain finished the second one by slicing its back!
[Short invisibility] right in front of the last one, Cain disappeared! The alligator died before he could see Cain again!
[You have leveled up!]
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[Enchanting]
[Firebolt]
[Fireblade]
[Burning hands]
[Bonfire]
[Frostbite]
[Lightning grasp]
[Lesser healing]
[Lesser Empowerment]
[Swiftness]
[Short invisibility]
[Soundless]
[Darkvision]
[Firelance]
[Scorching Rays]
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Cain was thrilled with joy, This was the first time he get to increase his stats! Each four level you get +2 stats to allocate wherever you want!
== ! Cain maxed his Intelligence without a second thought, It was the ideal thing for someone who relied on his magic most of the time!
His mind felt as clear as the blue sky, he could see everything around him clearly! the memories from his past life flashed front of his eyes like a lightning bolt! His mind has reached the peak of human capability.
His blue eyes glittered like gems, indicating his crystal clear mind!
Cain smiled as he had reached one of the milestones to stop the catastrophe, The enough to process Ninth-Tier Magic! He couldn’t use it yet because he was still a low level but he had at least got one of the requirement!
Cain wasn’t type to waste time here admiring himself so he rushed toward the mansion, On his way he face other alligators and small monsters.
The fight with one of the Alligators went like this with Cain now having 20 Intelligence!
Without even using magic, Cain simply walked toward the monster, a smile on his face!
GRAWWWW! The alligator charged opening its maw for a big bite. The attack was supposed to be fast but it seemed slow to Cain!
‘I have already fought you guys before, I already got bored from you attacks!’ Cain didn’t get any faster, neither did the alligator get slower. It was just that his perception speed increased!
Just like how a martial artist could dodge a punch that he saw thousands of times even if it seemed blazing fast to others, Entering the zone! That was Cain’s stat of mind at all times now that he reached 20 intelligence!
The alligator didn’t stand a chance.
After just a few minutes Cain reached the end, he could hear water flowing above his head! Climbing the cave wall and crawling inside a crack he entered what seemed like an abandoned room.
The room was made entirely from bricks!
[Darkvision] wasn’t enough so he turned the lights by casting [Enchanting: Light] on his sword!
Cain inspected the walls looking for the secret entrance, It didn’t take him long to find it, a push-able section of the wall! ‘Classic!’ He thought, turning the lights off.
Taking a deep breath, he slowly pushed the wall.
Light poured out from the crack followed with steam, Taking a quick look, he was in the lord mansion’s bath!
‘Someone is using it? I hope it’s jack, It will make my job easier!’ After making sure no one was close, Cain used [Short invisibility] to sneak out, he was beside the bathtub!
[Soundless] Cain walked slowly, no one was in the hot tub, they should them be washing themselves in another section. Just tracking the sound of water, he managed to see them!
The moment he saw them, he instinctively Covered his mouth and hid behind a wall. His heart was beating fast, his stomach was turning upside down, he felt as if he wanted to throw up!
What he saw could only described as horrendous, ‘Calm down, Calm down, you have seem worse!’
There was three people inside the bath, a girl who looked in her late teens or early twenties, Cain couldn’t tell for a reason! the other two were maids washing her body.
The maids were nice, even though a bit old! The problem was the girl, just looking at her was enough to make him sick!
Half of her skin looked as if it was burned and the other half was full of blisters, her nails have already fell off! here eyes were blood shot enough that he couldn’t tell their color, and her blond hair was already falling! ƒ𝐫𝒆𝐞w𝗲𝚋𝗻૦𝘷e𝙡.c𝑜𝙢
She was sitting on a chair, bleeding as the two maids tried to carefully wash her!
If he didn’t already know who she might be, he would have thought she was a zombie!
‘Is that the lord’s sick younger daughter?’ He though, instantly inspecting her from afar.
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She is level 2? I guess her father didn’t spare any expense on trying to heal her!
Leveling up can restore HP and heal most diseases, so her father must have tried making her level up in hope she will get better.
It works by hiring adventures and soldiers to capture a live monster and restrain it, after that the sick person will be one to kill it! and repeat until that person level up!
The catch was that Exp get divided between the people who participated in the kill! Capturing a monster alive required more people then just killing it, you also needed people to transport the monster to the sick person, as well as the one paying for all of this!
Having her level up must have costed him a fortune, no less than a thousand gold pieces!! It seems that leveling up failed to heal her condition though!
All of her physical stats are below 5 due to her failing body! And her 3 Charisma was also due to her look!
‘High wisdom?’ I guess being in her stat, willpower is the only thing keeping her alive!
It was them when Cain noticed something weird, beside her race is a ‘?’ mark!
‘What is that?…Human?…’
Cain used Enchanting to force his system to work at higher power, he wanted to learn what that ‘?’ mark meant!
After flickering in his eyes, the mark disappeared and instead of it appeared another word.
‘The…’ Cain froze in place in shock, this was a bad new on many different levels!