17 She likes it when I ask her help

Lily's eyes widened when she heard Larcen's words. She had not expected someone who was at the bottom in terms of stats along with her to say something so real. 

'He's as weak as me but he still fought those scary things while I simply watched and hid whenever there was danger. Even now, he fought the guy and got injured... he could've been fine if he just ran but why does he fight so hard? Wait, what's Mike trying to do?'

She saw her brother stare at Larcen for a few seconds before lifting his axe blindly and swinging it at one of the guys before losing balance. His axe flew, falling near the decapitated guy's head. Ethan acted swiftly and caught Mike while Larcen was a little bit late. 

Mike shook his head suddenly before standing back up and turned around to look at Larcen. He didn't look angry but instead seemed to be the most calm he had been in a while.

"You are right. Laws don't exist so we cannot expect people to force themselves to act kind and giving anymore. The only thing that's left is trust and it's on us to trust someone or not. I will do my utmost to protect you guys so I'll leave it to you to hit me when I lose sense of reality and start hoping."

"The fuck are you talking about?", asked Larcen while he put his hand over his wound to lessen the pain before continuing.

"I told you to do it because if it is true, those guys could potentially have a lot of SP. That is if we consider a situation where we are not the first ones they targeted. I simply wanted you, Aria and Ethan to get more SP so our group can get stronger. Now, tell me if it's true that SP gets transferred when you kill someone."

Mike opened his mouth to speak but instead simply closed it back up before checking his SP which had increased by one.

"It's true. I guess Ethan will go next...."

"You guys do your thing, I'll go to sleep. This shit hurts....", he said and left. He wanted to buy a Regeneration pill but he decided not to so he could build trust and show them that he didn't have SP left, which at the moment was true.

He heard screams but they only lasted for a few seconds before everything went back to silence. He heard Aria telling the others to not wake him up the next morning unless it was an emergency so he could heal and the others agreed. 

Lily and Mike went to sleep in another room while Aria quietly lay down beside him. He went to sleep pretty fast and woke up the next day when he heard shouts. He hurriedly picked up this machete and knife before running out while his abdomen stung. 

A two-meter-tall monster was fighting Mike and Ethan while Lily locked herself in a room. Larcen put his attention on the monster.

It was huge and bulky, its skin falling off at certain places and its eyeball dangled as it fought the two. He took a deep breath and activated his flow state as he checked his system which showed 3SP. He wanted to buy a pill but decided to show his dedication to the group more.

He waited for a chance to join in and finish things in just a few seconds and the chance did present itself when the monster lunged at Ethan, who rolled out of the way. The monster crashed into the wall and Larcen dashed towards it at his full speed, running past Mike and Ethan.

The monster roared as it got back up and turned around but Larcen was halfway through his lunge, his machete and dagger only a few inches from its body. Its large hand blocked the machete but the dagger slipped through before stabbing it in the empty eye socket.

Not even a second had passed since the monster registered pain but Larcen's machete was already on its way towards its next target. He slashed at its torso while he dropped down and this time, his enemy was too busy focusing on the pain to block his strike.

Noticing that, he put all of his energy into the slash which did cut very deep into it. Intestines slid out but Larcen didn't stop there. He ignored the pain and the twisting of his stomach while slashing the monster's thighs with both his dagger and knife before jumping back to a safe distance.

The monster struggled to keep its footing but lost balance and fell to the floor. Not long after, it stopped moving while Larcen emptied his stomach which was almost empty already. His wound hurt but he didn't care and checked the numbers below the skill chest which showed 12/100. making him smile.

"Damn, that was cool.... You have bad stats but you fight so well. Is it because of your skill?"

Larcen nodded as even he felt like that was the case. Without the flow state, he would never be able to observe or notice the small movements that the monster made, which enabled him to predict its moves.

"Now that I have some SP, should I just buy the regeneration pill?", he asked while sweat trickled down his forehead due to the pain. 

"That would be the best option but I suggest you save it to buy stat pills. Unless it's an emergency, it is pointless buying them." Mike said as he glanced at Aria who simply watched them.

Larcen shook his head before saying, "This whole situation is an emergency, don't you think so?"

Mike couldn't refute him as he was right but to his surprise, Larcen simply stood up and walked to the kitchen to drink some water before coming back to the living room.

"Aria, could you help me re-dress my wound?", he asked, smiling sweetly.

'This asshole....'. Mike thought as a smile formed on his face.