Chapter 51 Clash of blades
Chapter 51 51 Clash of blades
[El's POV: ] (A little while ago).
I was having fun here, and Eva had joined us a while back too, so things were going pretty smoothly… but just then, something interesting caught my eye.
===Status===
ID: Gurak
Race: Awakened Troll champion (Commoner)
Strength: 171
Agility: 162
Stamina: 153
Intelligence: 102
Mana: 120
Luck: 57
Charm: 21
Level: 108
[Skills: Super regeneration (Level-1), Fast learning (Level-1), Armor body (Level-1), Blade slash (Level-1), Rapid growth (Level-1), High stamina recovery (Level-1), Unbreakable resolve (Level-1), Wind blade (Level-1), Breserk (Level-1), Cutting tornado (Level-1), Aura evocation (Level-1).]
[Innate skills: Greater perception (Level-1), Ability boost (Level-1), Aura (Level-1).]
[Title: A creature who awakened, Tribal champion, Tribal hero.]
[Skill points: 309]
[Oz: 121,332]
============
'Someone here has more money than us? And he's a monster too? That's not fair now, is it?'
I stopped slashing the female troll before me and looked on the other side at my Lucy.
[ "Lucy. Look." ]
I shadowed the status window of this peculiar creature and went back to slashing the bitch. She was probably the head chef of their tribe so she should die more miserably.
[ "Ohhh! There's an awakened creature here?! Aren't we just lucky, El~!" ]
[ "Hmmm? You care about the awakened creature? Look at his Oz first dummy. He has more than us." ]
Why was my darling brother so pure?
[ "Yes he does but we just spent almost five times that amount, Mammy." ]
[ "That doesn't count. He has more than us so we have to take it all from him." ]
[ "Hmmm? Sure. We will take it from-… no! Wait! You aren't thinking about killing him, right?" ]
[ "Of course I am. We are here to do just that, no?" ]
[ "But he's an awakened El! Why would we kill a rare creature like that?!" ]
[ "They are rare? Nah, I don't care. He's a troll, we are here to kill trolls. And he looks strong too, so he might be fun~." ]
[ "Auriel! What do you mean you don't care?! He's a rare creature that's actually connected to the Worldline system! You know better than anyone just how valuable a creature like that is!" ]
Yes, I knew that but what was there to gain from a strong troll anyway? They looked ugly, and more than anything, I didn't like how they were emotional creatures with all those feelings.
'Why did the central brain add this much realism to monsters anyway?'
It should have made them like those three-headed puppies from hell like I did. That would have been cuter.
But this wasn't pretty. They were genuinely sad at seeing their kin die.
'Hump. I don't like it.'
[ "I don't like it means I don't like it. Doesn't matter we can raise this troll into a strong meat shield. It's going to die and that's final! And they are trolls anyway, after we kill the rest of his family, he would just go mad anyway." ]
[ "Haaa… El. That creature has an ability boosting innate skill, plus Fast learning, Rapid growth, and Unbreakable resolve, girl. You know I can teach him the basic heavy weapons, right? Why do you want to take away this great student from this poor little master of yours?" ]
He was sad right now. Genuinely sad. So sad that he was saying things weirdly.
'I'm his master first.'
And yes I knew all that the moment I saw his status window.
I knew just how great potential this creature living in the middle of nowhere possessed.
He was a great talent that must have achieved some extraordinary feats for him to get direct access to the system.
It was a rare thing and to see an awakened creature was akin to seeing an <S> rank artifact.
'Still, it's just a <S> rank artifact. Not like it's ▼▼▼▼▼. Or something even related to the ancient civilization. If anything, I think that bastard just added him while going with the flow and decided to go on a 'one vs one' fight instead of finishing the massacre the way a massacre should finish.'
I'm right, ain't I?
-. --- --..-- / -. --- - / - .... .. ... / - .. -- .
Anyway, I calmed my dear brother, killed the bitches and little bastards, created a plan to give that ugly monster to my darling, and after a little cleanup, we stood before them, giving them a choice to either die by my hands or to fight a duel with my darling.
It was common knowledge they were going to die either way, I would kill them just like the others, but if they had a chance, a little illusionary shot at preserving their lives, then it was only natural that the troll warrior would obey us even if I kill his family-
"El. Tell them regardless of whoever wins the battle, they will all get to live."
"What?! No! I wanna kill them!"
"You said the fate of their tribe will be in our hands, right? Then we can just use them.
They can stay here, farm things for us, and we can teach them a few things too.
I know you discarded this possibility because of Oni-chan but he mostly rules up to the high-level zones from the forbidden area.
You might have made him the ruler of the East, but that lazy bum stays in his nest most of the time.
So, if we invest in them a little and take over the lowest and low-level areas, we might just have another passive income source, don't you think?"
He said all that with a determined expression after seeing a great opportunity in this scenario. And yes I had already thought all of this through, but they weren't my type!
"No. I will kill them. I don't like leaving it midway. A massacre should end with the death of a leader. That's how it is in all the novels and manhwas!"
Why change the best generic ending?! We could have just slept on the blood-soaked ground after finishing this! Why does he want to take my little dream away?!
"El… it's better this way."
"But why?!"
Why, why, why?! I wanted to kill-
"Alright, I will use a wish… leave this bunch."
Wait, really?
"Alright then~. This makes it 45|51. Do whatever you want with them~."
He used a wish! Hehehe. He used his precious wish~. Still, the bastard had the advantage of six. I have to stop falling for his crappy tricks and giving him wishes just like that.
'Yes. Let's not give him any wish before the end of the entrance exam. Yes, that way, I can do him however I want, hehe. Yes… and let's seduce him more and try closing the gap.'
Yes. This would be the plan then.
-.. ..- -- / -.. ..- –
Anyway, it was settled. And some of those spectator bastards were getting excited now that my baby was going to face a big, strong, half-naked troll.
And I still didn't understand why these people were so crazy about duels.
'Like, what's so fun seeing two people fight a 1v1? If we are doing it naturally, then that's that, but why seeing a duel in the middle of a massacre excites them so much? Is it because it's fresh content?'
That can't be though. If they wanted to watch duels anyway, then they should just go look at <Spartan's arena>, not us that genuinely wanted a massacre, blood, misery, and deaths.
'And I know even though he's fighting a sacred battle with their tribe's future on the line-'
"Gruuuuuuuuuuuk…!" be𝚍𝚗ove𝚕.𝚗𝚎𝚝
-Swish~!
-Pu-tchak!
-Dhum…
A troll fell. Headless.
"Hmm? Eva? What took you so long?"
Eva appeared out of nowhere, just like he taught her, and slashed off the head of a troll that ran towards me from the other side.
Probably the dumb creature thought I was wide open and distracted so taking me out would be possible. Dumb creature.
"I met this big male on the other side and he was a little strong so it took me a while. What's going on though? What's Lu doing with that troll?"
She looked at Lucy with a confused expression and then at the troll's purely determined expression.
She could at least tell he was desperate, and that much was enough for her to guess a few things.
"You told them you would leave them alive if he wins or something? Why lie like that, little one? At least give them a little mercy."
"Well… so, actually, Eva. I was going to kill them at first, but then Lucy used a wish, begging me to leave them alive.
I'm powerless before him as always, aren't I?"
I smiled at her warmly, but she shook her head with a smirk and kept looking at the troll.
"You are powerless before the wishes, darling. That little play of yours will always be beyond me."
"Hehehe."
She sighed helplessly, knowing full well what was going to happen now.
Everything was too obvious from this point. One doesn't even have to write it down. It was so simple the readers can guess it all with only some pointers.
'But I know he will write it anyway. Huh… bastard.'
-... .. - -.-. ....
"Oh, right. I found this on that troll."
Eva took out a ring from her pocket and held it before me.
"It looked unique so I thought it would be something important so I brought it with me. Is this anything useful?" She asked, genuinely curious about what this loot item from her difficult kill could be.
And yes it was something useful. Pretty useful actually.
"It's called a Mana amplification and detection artifact, Eva. It makes the use and perception of environmental Mana easy so it would be pretty useful to you. Keep it."
It was a pretty good find actually. Not something grand but not good enough to impress me either.
Eva knew from my expression that I didn't need this thing so she just put it on her finger and looked back at the troll before Lucy… who, after seeing that ring on her hand and the scene of his dying brother by her hands, was even more determined to win than ever.
'But is there any way to win against the protagonist? And this early in the story too?'
Certainly not, right?
Certainly… he's going to win.
Certainly… my Lucy would win.
Certainly… right?
Certainly… he would, right??
Certainly… right???
...right?