Not willing

'Hmm… where should I allocate my remaining stat points?' Sky scratched his chin.

He has 45 stat points remaining and he wants to use them.

Beside him is Jericho stabbing repeatedly at a wooden plank.

'Personally I think dex is the least important for now so I am not even going to spend a point on it unless I have to. But which one then?'

All of his stats are important: Int raises his maximum mana, and lets him remember more things easier, strength raises his strength, Mind increases mana regeneration and helps him think fast in any situation, speed increases his overall speed and evasion, and finally vigor increases his stamina and HP.

Sky looked at his HP and vigor.

{HP: 2,030/2,030}

{Vig: 58}

It might seem impressive but most of his HP came from his armor. If someone were to take away or break his armor he would be losing his max health.

"As much as the Int and Mind stat are important to me I think vigor is just as important if not more. Once my HP reaches zero it's game over for me."

Sky allocated 42 stat points in vig making it 100 vig in total, leaving him only three stat points remaining.

{HP: 2,450/2,450}

{Vig: 100}

{Vigor has reached 100}

{+200 max HP has been added}

{HP: 2,650/2,650}

{10% of all damage received will be negated}

'Oh, wow that actually makes a huge difference!' Sky smiled.

{Mind: 53}

Sky used the remaining three points in Mind.

"Sky, why do you keep touching the air in front of you with your finger?" Jericho asked.

"Because it's fun. You should try it out sometime."

"..." Jericho.

Jericho copied Sky and tapped the air, she didn't find it fun at all.

'I don't get it…'

Sky continued sailing his boat while avoiding other ships that were near him using his map. Some of them he believes are the Warlord's men looking for him.

Sky looked at Jericho, thinking, 'I need to complete this mission with her before the timer is up, else something bad will happen, but can I hire or recruit more powerful people to fight against the Warlord?'

Sky thought he needed more powerful crew members to help him. There has to be a reason why the system gave him an entire month to prepare despite his insane growth speed.

'I mean if there's anyone who wants to kill the Warlord it has to be someone who obviously hates him enough to want to kill him.'

Sky had an idea as he looked at Jericho.

"Jericho."

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember what island you were on before you escaped from the Warlord's men?"

"Um… no, why?"

"No reason."

'Guess for now it's just her and me.'

Sky and Jericho entered another green portal.

{Portal has transformed into a dungeon green+ due to the player's presence}

{Dungeon: green+}

{Wildlife dungeon}

{Monsters: crocodiles, baboons}

{Boss: giant ape}

{Rewards: Exp, coins}

"Wait? Another green+ dungeon? Cool! But the baboons bring back horrible memories…"

Sky picked the closest green portal on his map and didn't realize it was a green+ portal.

The inside of the portal was different this time. It was an island filled with beautiful scenery with trees, flowers, grass, and it was all so bright because of the sun.

"This is a plentiful dungeon!" Sky smiled. All the dungeons he's been in were usually cave-like themes.

Plentiful portals are more rewarding, they are usually filled with an abundance of food and delicious animals. But just like any other portal there are monsters and a boss.

"Looks like we're the first ones here as well."

Both Sky and Jericho got off the boat. Once they stepped on land Sky transformed his boat into a card.

{Card transformation level up: lvl 8: able to transform objects into cards within a 50 meter radius}

'Wow.' Sky thought.

"I will never be able to understand how you're able to do that." Jericho said.

"Come on."

Jericho would find herself killing monsters by herself. She would figure out soon that attempting to kill monsters with a knife was more difficult than she wanted it to be.

Jericho had no choice but to rely on her magnetism ability to fight.

Sky couldn't blame her even though he wants her to rely on using a knife. Knives are fast but they're for the ones who like fighting close combat, and Jericho isn't the type that is skilled in fighting hand-in-hand.

'Maybe as she levels up more and grows taller she can use other weapons.'

Sky knew she already had the strength to wield a sword or a spear, the problem was that her hands are tiny, she didn't lack the strength to wield other weapons but it was her body that couldn't properly use another weapon.

{Jericho has leveled up}

As Jericho continued killing Sky picked up the delicious animal corpses and stored them in his inventory. There were also fruits growing from the ground and trees that Sky harvested.

{An anomaly has entered the dungeon}

Sky's eyes widened.

"Jericho, stop." Sky said quietly as he ran up beside her.

Jericho halted her movements as she stared at Sky.

"What's wrong?"

"We have company."

Slowly they crept up behind the bushes. They saw three ships being docked on the beach, they all had the insignia of the Warlord on the flags.

"They found us?" Jericho asked.

"No, they found the dungeon."

Sky was sure no one was following them. The only explanation is that those men were already informed about the plentiful dungeon before and came prepared.

Using 'identify' he could figure out the overall strength and skills of everyone.

Everyone was exiting the ships, including some slaves.

'Hm… they're stronger than Jericho but weaker than me. Except that one.'

There is one man that sort of made him worried.

This man carried a bow and a sword. He was tall, skinny, but had the face of an innocent kid.

{Clark Mars}

{HP: 330/330}

{Mana: 350/350}

{Stats: Str: 81. Dex: 59. Spd: 83. Int: 70. Mind: 62. Vig: 23}

{Skill: Slowness: lvl 5: slows opponents by 25%}

{Skill: Water slice: lvl 3}

{Skill: Eye of truth: lvl 1}

'He has three skills, one of which is worrisome, and most of his stats are high. But damn his HP is so low! Maybe adding stats on my vigor was the correct choice after all.'

Sky looked at Jericho, thinking if he should also focus on increasing her vigor if he comes across a vigor scroll.

He also wondered why no one aside from him and Jericho has any sort of weapon mastery in their skills, perhaps that's a system skill only?

"Sky," Jericho whispered, "are we going to have to fight them?"

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?"

"No."

"Good."

While everyone was getting ready to explore the island, Sky used this opportunity to strike first.

After identifying everyone Sky was sure that Clark is the most dangerous one. He stood up and held his trident tightly.

'I have 50 dexterity, so my aim should be good.'

Meanwhile, Clark noticed something on the ground.

"Blood?" Clark touched the red substance with his hand, he also noticed the area around him had been trampled.

"Has someone been here before us? But there wasn't a ship-"

Before he noticed, a trident flew at a great speed and pierced his head, killing him instantly.

Sky smiled. His trident's base damage deals exactly 400 HP, which was already more than Clark's HP. Not that it mattered if one gets stabbed through the head.

{Earned 2,010 exp, 1,700 shells}

"ENEMY!" The rest of the Warlord's men immediately grabbed their weapons. Most carried guns with them.

Before they realized it their weapons flung out of their hands and threw themselves into the ocean.

"I'm getting good at this." Jericho smiled.

"You're getting better, I'll give you that. Summon lightning birds!"

{Lightning bird: lvl 5: Damage: 98 (base damage 70). HP: 300}

{Summoning mastery: lvl 4: Summon damage 40% increase. Summon 4 units max}

Four lightning birds were summoned behind him and immediately dashed towards the men.

Most of the Warlord's men's HP were between 150-250. A single attack from a lightning bird can deal a significant amount of damage to them.

"BACK TO THE SHIPS!"

With their weapons gone, and their captain dead, they quickly boarded their ships and sailed to the exit.

The birds stopped chasing as Sky gave them the command to retreat. Sky smiled as he already knew what was about to happen.

The ships sailed full speed to where the supposed exit is, only for the ships to hit the pointy rocks and completely destroy their ships.

"Wait, where's the portal?"

"What the fuck?! What just happened?"

"Why can't we leave?"

Everyone was confused. It was only natural, this has never happened to them.

Seeing them in such a state made Sky smile sinisterly.

Jericho couldn't help but notice his sadistic smile.

"Kill them all."

The lightning birds began electrocuting everyone to death. Those who tried to fight back couldn't hit a single bird due to their small size and speed.

Sky could hear and see the notifications as the Warlord's men fell.

{Level up}

{Level 62}

{Exp: 1111/9000}

{Stat points: 5}

Then he looked at the slaves beside him. They were all huddled together and shaking in fear.

"Sorry about this."

*Crack*

Sky killed all the slaves by cracking their necks without them having to feel any pain.

'Thought I would feel bad killing them, but I don't.' Sky thought.

"Sky?" Jericho tugged on Sky's shirt, "why did you kill those slaves?"

She could understand killing the Warlord's men, but why the slaves?

"If we were to save them and drop them off at some island, there's a chance the Warlord will find them, and there's a chance that they will tell him what they saw. I can't take that risk. And if we leave them here to die they'll have a slow and possibly horrible death."

'Also this is free exp and money for me, even if it was an insignificant amount.' Sky thought, but couldn't say that as nobody would understand.

"Oh… but why do you smile whenever you kill someone?"

Sky couldn't help but cover his mouth, he didn't even notice.

"Because I like killing. There's your reason. I thought I made that clear after brutally killing all those fishmen."

To Sky, he felt that killing both humans or monsters was no different from an ordinary gamer killing an npc in a video game.

Sky didn't know if he was doing this willingly because he enjoys seeing himself growing stronger and richer, or because the power of the mind was affecting him. But he genuinely believes he really is enjoying it, and he likes it.

'Am I secretly as sadist, a psychopath, or what?' Sky thought but didn't let it affect him.

"Oh… okay. But you spared those fishmen children."

"So you did see them. I spared them because I'm not a monster… or because I couldn't kill children and felt bad for them? Or maybe I'm a hypocrite? Either way don't go thinking I'll kill everyone I see."

"Okay… but you won't kill me, right?"

*Bonk*

Sky punched her head.

"Ow!" Jericho held her dead where Sky hit her.

"Don't say stupid stuff like that."

Once the birds were finished they flew back to Sky and rested on his head and shoulder. One even sat on top of Jericho's head.

Sky made sure to check the ships and corpses of every single person.

Sky searched and the best loot he could find is a little over 5,000 shells, wood and nails for fixing his damaged ship. There are also two pieces of paper that he took with him.

"Hey, Jericho, look what I found." Sky showed her a poster of her face.

Jericho's eyes widened. It was an accurate sketch of her face. Above the poster is her name written in black bold letters, "Jericho Haydie."

Below that was written "100,000 shells: alive. Wanted for stealing and killing from the Warlord. Last seen traveling with a man."

"This makes me feel like a wanted criminal." Jericho took the poster and examined it carefully.

"If you think that's bad, look at this." Sky showed her another wanted poster.

It was a picture of a man in his mid-twenties, with curly hair, tanned, and blue eyes. There was no name written on it. Below was written. "Wanted: 1,000 shells, killing six of the Warlord's men and helping Jericho Haydie, a wanted criminal escape."

"I am sure this is supposed to be me, and they only got my hair and skin color right, I don't even have blue eyes like what the hell? Mine are brown! Also I killed six men, how is my bounty that low?"

"If you think about it this is a good thing, no one will recognize you, and with such a low bounty no one is going to pay that much attention to you… unlike me."

"I know, I know. This is another reason why I killed those slaves, what if they gave out an accurate description of my face?"

"Fair point."

Sky tore the paper into pieces and Jericho threw hers away. After killing every single monster they killed the boss with ease.

They left the portal, and all the bodies and ships remaining inside disappeared along with the portal.

"Sky, I honestly feel a whole lot stronger." Jericho said.

Sometimes when they clear a dungeon she notices she is slightly faster than before, stronger, and has more mana.

"I think it's your imagination, I thought I said that already."

"I really, really don't think it's my imagination."

"It's okay, Jericho, when I was your age I was also very dumb and naive."

"Sky, we're only four years apart, and I'm turning fourteen next month."

"Oh, seriously? Good for you. If we manage to kill the Warlord before your birthday I'll give you a birthday present."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that, you mentioned we have to kill him before a month passes but why a month? Isn't that too little time?"

"Because if we don't kill him in less than thirty days something horrible will happen to the both of us."

"What? What will happen?"

"I wish I also knew. For now keep training before we reach another portal in forty minutes."

'I don't know how he keeps finding these portals so easily.' Jericho thought.

They would continue clearing more portals, training or resting in between, leveling up, avoiding any ships and so on.

At the end of the day before clearing the final portals Sky would end up reaching level 63 with ten stat points left to spare. Jericho is now level 27 and rising fast.

'I only got two levels today. At this rate I won't be leveling up a single time in a day. I need something better than portals. Those fishmen gave me such great exp, if only I can find more of them, not to mention I'm giving half of my exp to Jericho because she's useful.'

Sky couldn't help but look at Jericho who was slashing at a wooden plank with her knife.

'Come to think of it, when we fight the Warlord does she have what it takes to kill a human? She has killed monsters but they're not the same as killing a man. And she already took two human lives before but only because her life depended on it both times.'

Sky was worried about Jericho, she might have power now but can she really take a human life if he wanted her to?

After all the reason he's helping her get stronger is because he is not going to babysit her all throughout the entire journey.

'Hm?'

As he looked at his map, he saw a ship sailing into a green portal and disappearing. Sky can't look inside a portal and determine if there are already people inside.

'I hope they're part of the Warlord's crew, or at least people who are worth killing.' Sky smiled as he had an idea.

"Jericho, take a break from that."

"Yes!" Jericho dropped her knife and shook her wrist.

"One last portal and we're done for today."

"Isn't that the 10th one already today?"

"Yup."

Before they reached the portal both noticed that the portal gate was blinking and was moving around irregularly.

"Someone cleared the portal already." Sky said. Jericho nodded.

'Then why did those people enter the portal even if someone had already cleared the portal?

They entered a portal. It was another cave portal. In front of them are two ships locked in combat.

One ship appeared to be a normal ship, possibly an exterminator ship, but the other ship is a pirate ship.

Sky stopped his boat from advancing any further. He noticed that the inside of the portal was collapsing.

{Time until portal closes: 8:44}

Portals close ten minutes after the dungeon boss is dead, or immediately after all humans have exited the portal.

"Sky, what are we going to do?" Jericho asked.

Sky turned his boat around and docked it right outside the portal.

"We'll wait. That's what we'll do."

Sky did want to 'help' them by killing them and gaining exp and loot in the process. However he didn't feel it was right to fight them while the portal was closing.

Once a portal closes anything and everyone inside the portal will be gone from the face of the earth. Sky didn't know what can happen to someone who is left inside a collapsing portal, but most likely it wasn't good.

"Sky, shouldn't we leave if the portal is already cleared?"

"No. If those pirates come out of the portal I have an idea for them."

With twenty seconds left to spare the pirate ship made it out alive with the portal closing immediately behind them.

Many of the pirates were covered in cuts, splinters, cannon powder, blood, and other wounds. Their ship was also damaged.

Without giving them a second to respond, Sky jumped over their ship and pinned all the pirates on the ground using his telekinesis, and rounded them all up despite their cursing and futile resistance.

Sky would then tie every single pirate using some rope he found on the pirate's ship. He would then proceed to rob them blind, before realizing they were poor with only 199 shells to their name. All the rewards from the portal were left behind in the portal due to lack of time and failing to retrieve them.

"Jericho, come here."

*Gulp*

Jericho was standing watch on their ship. She had a rough idea what Sky was planning to do once he was tying those pirates instead of killing them, and she didn't like it one bit.

Slowly she made it over the other ship.

Sky handed her his favorite sword and pointed at the pirates. Jericho could barely hold the sword with both her hands.

"Kill them all. I don't care how you do it, but you better do it."

Sky sat on the edge of the boat and kept an eye on them. He could see how the pirates were looking at her and him and were pleading with their eyes, he covered their mouths with rope or cloth.

"But… but, but…"

Jericho looked at Sky, her hands shaking, she wanted to cry.

"Jericho, I told you I was going to make you pull your own weight. I know you already killed two people before, but when you were telling me I noticed you seemed uncomfortable. I have to rely on you to be able to fend yourself when we will be facing the Warlord and his men."

Sky knew she was just a kid, her mindset was still that of a kid's. She didn't have {power of the mind} like he did which is why he wants her to get used to killing.

If she doesn't kill he'll somewhat expect it. He just wants to see how far she's willing to take it.

Jericho was nervously sweating as she saw those men looking at her, her lips quivering, her breathing getting colder and faster, knowing full well that their lives are on the line.

They looked at her pleading, crying, their muffled screams begging to show mercy, they rolled around for whatever reason.

"Jericho, remember those times you were going to be kidnapped, these pirates are probably worse than those men, do you really want to show them mercy? You just saw them kill an entire crew not even ten minutes ago to steal their hard earned work!"

'Then again, I did the same thing to the exterminator crew… ah well.' Sky realized he sounded like a hypocrite.

Hearing him Jericho couldn't help but raise the sword with both hands. She was shaking the blade uncontrollably as she had trouble keeping calm in the situation.

After two minutes of waiting, Jericho made a move.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry!"

Jericho dropped the sword and ran back to the captain's quarters. The entire pirate crew felt relieved and safe for the moment.

Sky held his head with both his hands. He was expecting this outcome, but he still couldn't help but feel disappointed that not only did she spare their lives, but she apologized.

"I had hope but she's still a kid in the end. She'll learn to kill someday." Sky rose and grabbed the sword.

Instead of granting them quick deaths, Sky stabbed them so they bled to death.

After killing every single pirate and burning the ship down, he sailed away to another island before sundown.

Sky entered the captain's quarters and saw Jericho on the bed hugging her pillow and hiding under the blanket. Sky stood beside her bed and said, "What was that?"

"I couldn't do it."

"I know. Why?"

"Because… I just… it just… they were…"

"I know it was my choice to save you, but I also told you from the beginning to not make me regret having saved you, and you did just now. From now on I'm having you kill every single monster and boss in a portal, don't expect my help."

"Okay… sorry." Jericho couldn't even look at Sky as she hid underneath her blanket.

{Exp share: 99%}

Instead of sharing 50% of the exp of monsters they kill, Sky was going to receive 99% of exp until she learns to kill another human being. He can't possibly rely on her if she can't take a human life.

'Am I being too harsh? Probably, but she has to know that she's been kidnapped a few times already and almost got branded as a slave.'

Before Sky left, he said to her, "I'm waking you up tomorrow early to help me with the chores."

"Okay…"

He closed the door leaving Jericho alone to her own devices.

Sky docked the ship on another uninhabited island, it was also the smallest island he had seen yet There was nothing special about the island this time.

Instead of sleeping, Sky continued raising his skills.