It’s mercy

Atlan couldn't bear to live with the thought that those monsters lived the rest of their pitiful lives suffering in place without being able to do anything.

While the rest of the Saviors were congratulating both him and Yasmine, Atlan ignored all of their applause and headed down the steps toward the battlefield.

Everyone wondered where he was going.

"Atlan?" Neumann shouted towards him, but he didn't seem to hear it. "Where are you going?"

He walked the streets filled with the corpses of the fallen Pseudo Canzers. Some were burned to crisps, some had been decapitated, and most died from cuts and pierces from blades.

He ignored all of them; he already reaped their souls.

He walked towards where Yasmine positioned herself in the competition.

He saw a group of blue monstrous arthropods about the same size as his torso, all facing the same direction. They encircled the spot where Yasmine stood in place.

Green blood was splattered everywhere. Her blade was like a paintbrush that used the corpses of monsters as her canvas.

But these groups of Pseudo Canzers were different from the corpses around. These had their mandibles spread wide open and ready to bite their prey.

Some even had their wings open and ready to fly.

These Pseudo Canzers were still full of life, yet they lay there frozen in time. Even though they didn't move, he saw them struggle to find freedom–to find life.

He had to free them. He had to relieve their suffering. It was his responsibility.

He saw a wooden sword in the ground. It was one of those practice swords that the Saviors used to practice their skills on straw dummies.

He picked it up and used both of his hands to grip it on its handle. He raised it above his head and explosively brought it down towards the monster below him.

CRACK

The monster's carapace cracked into pieces from the force, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough to kill the creature.

Atlan continued to bash the sword to the Pseudo Canzer's head, with green blood splattering on his face. But he didn't care. He didn't stop until he saw the words in front of him;

[You have assisted in killing a Pseudo Canzer]

[You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers]

[You have gained 15 experience]

Wemby shouted towards him. "Atlan, you don't have to do that. You won the competition! Let the loser do all the dirty work!"

"He's right. Let Wemby do it!" Zoland shouted back.

"Hey! I'm in second place!"

Zoland shrugged.

The burden of cleaning up the Pseudo Canzers usually ended up being the responsibility of those who lost the competition.

This wasn't a hard rule, but an unwritten one that they all followed. It's also one of the reasons why the rest of them were so competitive.

It's fine if they didn't win, but they couldn't be last place.

Nobody wanted to do it because it was a tiresome job that could last hours upon hours of hard work. It would take time away from their break and their training.

And the fact that they didn't get any experience from it gave them even less incentive to do it.

It was also tradition for the beginners to have their first day involve cleaning up the Canzers.

However, when they saw how talented and capable their new Porter was, they all unanimously decided to let Atlan free from this responsibility.

It was the reason why they didn't mention anything about cleaning up the Canzers to him.

But despite that, Atlan voluntarily did the dirty work nobody wanted to do, seemingly out of nowhere. It was a very noble and respectable sacrifice that the veteran Saviors appreciated.

Their impression of Atlan improved drastically.

They were pleased to know that even though he was a transcendent talent, he was still humble enough to show respect to his seniors. They appreciated the fact that Atlan didn't feel that it was beneath him to do this dirty work.

"What a kid! Our new Porter is truly someone to behold."

"He'll be popular among the veterans. I'm sure he'll be invited to missions all the time."

"See that? I taught him that," Wemby lied. Of course, the others quickly saw through it and berated him. Unlike Atlan, Wemby was one of the guys who always wanted to shirk away from the dirty work.

Atlan continued to find more poor Canzers that needed the release of death.

[You have assisted in killing a Pseudo Canzer]

[You have reaped the death of simple creatures: Pseudo Canzers] x3

[You have gained 45 experience]

But on his last kill, the wooden sword suddenly snapped in half. It didn't shatter into a thousand splinters. It split in half.

This was because Atlan had no experience holding a sword at all.

Nobody even noticed that he was holding onto it wrong. Instead of using the sharp edges of the sword, Atlan was instead using the flat part of the blade to smash the head of the monsters!

Not only that, the Pseudo Canzers he was killing were from Yasmine's last failed batch. It was close to the 4th stage difficulty.

This meant that he was able to kill a Pseudo Canzer at almost the 4th stage difficulty with just his brute strength. If he used the blade, he'd be able to easily kill it in one strike.

Atlan felt a sudden tap behind him.

He was surprised to see a brand new wooden sword held out towards him. He was even more surprised to see that it was Yasmine who gave it to him.

"Congrats," she said while looking away from him. "I'll win next time."

And before she left, she gave him one piece of advice.

"Try to pierce through the boundary between its carapace and its wings. It's their weak point."

She didn't notice that Atlan's grip on the sword was completely wrong.

After that, she quickly left and walked back up the stairs of the HeadQuarters.

Atlan appreciated her gesture and kept it in his mind, but he didn't know what she was talking about. I'll win next time? We didn't compete in the same competition…

But since she already left, he couldn't ask her about it. He took his attention back to the matter at hand.

He looked at one of the Pseudo Canzers in front of him and coincidentally, it had its wings spread open, ready to fly and pierce its prey. Unfortunately, it was frozen in time.

He followed her advice and used the tip of his sword to pierce through the small gap between the monster's hard shell and underbelly.

His eyes widened as he felt it easily slip through the defenses and stab its innards, instantly killing it.

[You have killed a Pseudo Canzer]

[You have reaped the death of a simple creature: Pseudo Canzers]

[You have gained 20 experience]

[You have gained a 1-star Genus Pseudo Canzer]

[You have gained an F class LifeSkill Mucus Spray]