The third time

In order to keep his sanity, Kane decided that he wouldn't take lives unless he had no other choice, and now that moment finally arrived. If his enemies could, even for a moment, consider that his opponent wasn't just a slime, they would have noticed the apprehension in his eyes. But it was too late to think about that.

Some of the kids relaxed when the first group joined them. Some even have the courage to show their backs to Kane and head to the place where the slimes were spawning… one of them didn't even have time to regret that. Three Water Balls suddenly flew from Kane's mouth and hit the head of a random tall boy… his neck snapped, and he fell on the floor like a puppet without a master.

(Congratulations! You killed an enemy. You received ten reincarnation points.")

While Kane was feeling shivers for having taken his first life, he heard that voice, and he even imagined the owner of that voice mocking his struggles. Still, he didn't have time to think about the thing. He just did it… he killed the kid because he wanted to scare the others, but that only raised their guards up to the max level.

At that point in time, Kane only had enough mana to fire three more Water Balls. After that, he would die. Still, he reinforced his determination to go down after struggling as much as he could. Although he could reincarnate, it didn't mean that he had to endure the pain of dying just because his opponents couldn't do the same… they brought the fight for him, and now they had to take the consequences.

"Shit… shit… you have got to be kidding me."

To make matters worse, Kane started to make it even worse because some kids began to cry. One of their friends just died, after all. Still, Kane forced himself to believe that he wasn't the only one to be blamed in there.

While trying to make good use of the moment, Kane left the bush and started to jump backward slowly in order to leave that area. The kids had already surrounded him, but they also hesitated in keeping their formation. Instead, they just followed Kane and waited for the moment to attack.

"… It looks like they can't see how much mana I have. Shall I try to scare them even further by knocking down or killing one of them?"

There was a chance that such action might backfire, but either way, Kane couldn't let that situation continue for long. The more time passes, the more his focus would wane, and eventually, he will make a mistake that will lead to his death. The options were few, but Kane decided to take his chances and bet everything on a surprise attack.

In order to break the encirclement, he attacked one of the kids that were behind and looked at him nervously. It was a girl armed with a short sword, and her weapon looked like it was about to break, so it was the perfect target. Without a hint of hesitation, Kane opened his mouth and fired two Water Balls.

The next moment, Kane felt several weapons piercing his body… the kids had been waiting for the moment when he would attack. However, his surprises didn't there.

(Congratulations! You broke the enemy's weapon. You received one reincarnation point.")

(Congratulations! You killed an enemy. You received ten reincarnation points.")

As expected, his attack broke the girl's weapon, but his second Water Ball hit the broken piece of sword and made it pierce the girl's throat. That was the last thing Kane saw before dying for the second time in that world…

"You died. A Heshanan killed you… you lost nine reincarnation points."

Although Kane achieved a lot, he didn't feel like celebrating. Three days had passed since Earth exploded, and he already had to kill two people, and they were basically kids. Kids who had weapons would stab him to death without hesitation, but kids nonetheless.

"Shit, shit… why do I have to feel like this?"

Without waiting for Kane to collect his thoughts, the system showed him the blue screen of the monsters he could choose. As if it was demanding him to shut up and move on. Kane decided to ignore that, but then again, as if the system was trying to mess with him, a countdown appeared. Kane had sixty seconds left.

"… Whatever, it is not like I have any other choice. I don't want to reincarnate as a slime, so my only option is to become a Bloody Ant. So, only twelve coins will be left after that, not nearly enough to buy a single decent spell."

To make matters worse, Kane couldn't even see the status of a level-one Bloody Ant. Most likely, it wasn't a species of monster that was focused on the use of magic spells. Regardless, Kane also accessed the items options, and there he found some interesting things.

Knife (10)

Wooden Spear (30)

Wooden Bow (50)

…

"I can buy a knife, but can an ant use a knife? I'm pretty sure I won't be small as the ants on Earth, but I'm also pretty sure that I won't have fingers to hold it."

In the end, Kane decided to leave those points stored. If he could, he would buy some lives in order to spawn somewhere the places he might die, but a retry as an ant would cost him twenty-five reincarnation points. To purchase an extra life as a slime, he would have to spend five. It wasn't so bad considering the benefits, but upon dying, Kane would lose the progress in levels and skills.

"10, 9, 8, 7…"

"I just hope this time that I won't have to do so many things that will torment me later just to survive."

One could always hope for the best and prepare for the worst, but Kane never imagined things would be even more troublesome… What could be worse than being forced to kill those who closely resembled humans? Although he had already dirtied his hands with someone else's blood, doing it again would still take a toll on Kane's mind.

Instead of appearing in some open area like the orchard, Kane appeared inside a cave, and he couldn't see the natural light of the sun. Kane assumed that he was far way from the place where slimes spawned... By the look of things, most likely, he had spawned inside a dungeon. At the very least, Kane didn't find teenagers killing other monsters nearby... so things improved a little bit.