True self

The group had finally reached the inn and immediately rested in their own rooms. Ren tried to communicate with the system but it was to no avail. The system had used most of his O.P points and even went into hibernation. All of that just to remove the stupid berserker curse that was placed on him. Something as powerful as the creator of the system had placed the curse which made it difficult to remove.

Ever since the time the system stopped working, Ren was forced to acquire his own strength. It was fortunate that all the skills he bought were still active, even the comprehension function of the system was still working. So Ren read different manuals of cultivation techniques and reached the strength of the Foundation Establishment realm, but coupled with the skills from the system Ren was a bit stronger than a person at the peak of the Nascent Soul realm.

...

The moon was now at the highest point and most of Ren's companions were asleep except for one. The one who was still awake was releasing bits and pieces of his strong mana, different from what he had shown in the Adventurers Guild.

Of course Ren already noticed that there was something different from him. The boy's act was good enough to even trick Ren but the mana fluctuation that he was trying to suppress was noticed quite quickly.

Just like Ren thought, the boy showed his true nature the moment he thought everyone was completely asleep. The boy left the inn and was heading outside of the city, he even used a levitation spell. Ren followed behind at least 500 meters away from the boy.

Once Ren and the boy got farther away from the city, the boy landed and started screaming. "What the hell is the day me doing! How unlucky could he get! How in the world did he get in a carriage with a monster like that!?"

The boy was screaming at himself saying incomprehensible words. "Is this karma? No it can't be I wasn't even going to do anything truly bad to them. I just wanted to power up my mana by just a bit, its not like they'll die. Yet now all that effort was wasted, if I even try to take a bit, I'm sure that monster would notice and behead me, and that's if I'm lucky."

The boy touched his neck while remembering how the monster of a boy beheaded a B rank adventurer like it was nothing. When Ren heard the boy shout monster this and that, he was pretty sure the boy was talking about him.

To think that he would act like that during the day and turn out to be a mana draining magician. So was the whole point of his act to make them lower their guard?

Ren continued observing the boy, waiting for him to shout some more information. The boy who had no idea of Ren's wishes started gathering mana.

"O great spirit, guardian of the departed hear my call. O great spirit, hound of death hear my call. O great spirit, guardian of the dead and bane of the living hear my call. I your summoner demand you to come! Hear my call! CERBERUS!" A burst of wind blew by the surrounding area, and a huge magic circle appeared underneath the boy.

Ren who witnessed the whole thing facepalmed. 'What is with this world! Are the summons the same as the monster all from Greek mythos?!'

What came out of the magic circle was as expected a three headed dog that was about thirty five feet tall. His ferocious looking heads stared at the boy.

"Master, why did you summon me? Is it to deal with that dangerous threat hiding behind the trees?"

"I summoned you because... Wait dangerous threat?!" The boy looked at my direction. "What is it a monster?"

The Cerberus snarled, "Come out and face us!"

I had no choice but to come out now, with a few simple steps I was able to traverse that five hundred meters between us in a blink. I was now facing the wary Cerberus and the scared boy.

"How come its you? Why are you here?!" The boy pointed at Ren shaking, while trying his hardest not to pee.

"How rude of you to treat me like you've seen a monster, while an actual monster is your pet." When the Cerberus heard Ren call him a pet he growled.

"You dare call me a pet!" The boy tried to calm Cerberus down, but was unable to do so. Cerberus growled even louder trying to intimidate Ren.

"Quiet down puppy! Your master and I are talking!" Ren shouted at Cerberus, which cowered before him.

When Ren shouted he was showing off his mana and releasing his killing intent upon the Cerberus. The Cerberus feeling the strong gust of mana surging forth from Ren felt restricted by it. On the other hand when he felt Ren's killing intent he felt all of his courage was drained from him.

Was the guy in front of him really human? The Cerberus like a beaten puppy hid behind his master.

The boy looked at Cerberus and felt pity. He knew how horrible the killing intent Ren releases was something even the bravest would shiver upon feeling it. The boy looked at Ren who was now smiling from ear to ear like a child who found a new toy.

"So Sir Ren how can I help you?"

"Why talk like that? Aren't we companions in this journey?"

The boy didn't bother with Ren's superficial statement, but he was frightened by Ren's smile. That was the same smile he had when he fought the Guild Master Lester. The boy could pretty much predict what would happen next.