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The Weapon

The guy just looked at Beta a bit shocked and shook his head and said, "I guess this is what it takes to be in a world like this."

After that, he didn't say a single word anymore and just sat there unmoving, without breathing. Beta just raised an eyebrow to his final words. He was confused why the guy even had the need to utter those words when it was pretty common sense. The strong eat the weak and survival of the fittest, both were unbreakable rules which dominated this world. It was evident judging by how they separated the layers of strength and statuses of powerful beings. If that wasn't the case, there wouldn't be any point to training hard to be strong at all.

For Beta, being called a monster was more of a compliment rather than an insult. If people would think of him as a monster right now when he's still a weakling, what more once he grows stronger? Will he get an even more ridiculous title such as Death Ripper or The Harbinger? Just thinking about made Beta space out a little but then he came to his senses as the cold wind blew the stench of blood towards his face.

"Now's not the time to be daydreaming but he sure was talkative for someone who was dying... Oh well, at least, it's about to end now."

He did a thorough check on the corpse to ensure that it was really over and through his soulpower, Beta was able to clearly feel that he was dead, so he wasn't concerned about him anymore. There were only the four people left including their healer, but Beta didn't move towards them and looked towards Johann's direction.

"Don't you think it's about time that you finish them? You shouldn't play around too much with your enemy or you'll open a window for them to retaliate. Oh! But let the woman live, we'll need to ask her a few questions.", Beta said smiling.

"Ohh... Okay.", Johann said, snapping with his fingers.

Soon, after the sound traveled through their ears, mushrooms sprouted out of their bodies at a crazy speed. It was a colorful, yet cruel sight. When Johann got down from the roof, he took one of the mushrooms and ate it casually. He looked at Beta straight in the eyes, as he revealed his deepest secret.

"My mushrooms feed on their soulpower and vitality to grow and enhance it once eaten. I think you won't have to worry about me saying anything anymore since our powers are not that different after all.", Johann said with a cheeky smirk.

Beta's eyes showed a hint of a glint, as he smiled widely at Johann's revelation. "I see… so that's how it is… haha… I'm really lucky to find such good subordinates.", thought Beta while feeling warm inside. He was actually already thinking of many reasons and countermeasures on how to make Johann keep mum about what happened and what he saw. But it turned out that he need not to.

"Hehe… I wasn't worried, but I will make sure to keep your secret as well. By the way, can I have one?", Beta asked curiously.

"Help yourself.", Johann answered shrugging, also a little bit glad that Beta didn't find it revolting.

He had always hidden this secret ability of his due to how unorthodox and brutal it is. Anybody would find it disgusting and inhumane, which could be a reason for them to hunt him down and accuse him of cannibalism. But this odd leader of his didn't bat an eyelid at all and even asked if he could try it. "As expected…", that was the only thought that came into Johann's mind.

Beta was happy to hear that and picked up a mushroom that sprouted out of the eye socket of one of the victims and ate it. At first, he thought it'd taste like human flesh but then he was surprised by the rich taste which was followed by a gush of energy that overflowed throughout his body, invigorating him.

"Wow! Not bad at all! Plus, the effect is pretty good! These would make a great soup! How many of these can you produce?", Beta asked, seemingly excited.

Johann was surprised by Beta's question. Seeing his excited face made him feel awkward for he, too, thought the same when he came to discover his extra ability. But that was all in the past and now that he was old enough to understand the world, he couldn't help but be ashamed by how naïve he was back then. It was a good thing that he never showed this ability of his to the others, not even to his close loved ones. Beta, on the other hand, has always been an oddball so he threw away caution at the back of his head and unabashedly admitted.

"Depends on the number of people and their strength. There isn't much of a limit to it since it more or less behaves like a parasite. But other people don't profit from it as much as I do, so it's not as useful for the ones on the same level as me. If it wasn't for that, I could become rich just by killing a bunch of people.", Johann said slightly disappointed.

"I see! Well, even if it's not as helpful to us, it is still better than normal food. Truly a nice ability you have there.", Beta said admiringly.

He could've asked him to share it to everyone in the squad, but it was something that, at least for now, shouldn't be done. Everyone else might have a different about his matter compared to him which has always been very open-minded about many things. Now, everything that Johann had should be reserved for him, and only later once there were more bloody battles or other opportunities like this one, could he ask for it.

While Beta was scheming on his own, Johann, on the other hand, was quiet as he looked down, a bit shy. He felt touched by Beta's lackadaisical way of complimenting him. He never thought someone would appreciate this barbaric ability of his, so he was genuinely happy hearing Beta's remark.

"Thank you…", mumbled Johann, while still looking down.

"Alright, we shouldn't wait any longer and instead dedicate ourselves to her.", Beta finally said, looking at the entangled woman.

Noticing his teammate's mood, Beta changed the subject and turned his attention to the gasping woman. Johann also instantly snapped back to reality and released her, after which she slumped on the ground, panting heavily.

"So, what do you know about this situation and the hunting mission targeting me?", Beta asked while showing the same warm smile once again. The blood on his body had dried by now and the stench of it was unbearable to her.

"You're going to kill me anyway, why should I tell you anything?!", Elise said, despairing.

"Oh? Quite gutsy you are… Well… Because you will have to go through another slithery adventure if you don't.", Beta said laughingly.

The bloody smiling face made Elise became pale, but she quickly regained her will and denied to say anything.

"Oh, seems like you actually got to like that.", Beta said, clearly amused. He then added, "We will have to do it the hard way then... I will train my death elemental soulpower on you and slowly let the skin on your face decay before going over to worsening your body condition until you suffer a fate much worse than death. Do you want to know how I'll continue after that?", Beta said with a serious face.

"M-My face? No! Please! Not my face! Everything but my face! Please! I'll tell you everything!", Elise muttered at first, turning into a scream shortly after.

Beta was a bit shocked by her quick answer. Why did the threat of destroying one's face somehow became much worse than slowly dying? He never really understood what women thought, but at least he knew that this was something that works on most of them. Beta could only shake his head while muttering under his breath, "Women…".

"So? Who's giving you orders? and who's that guy over there? If you lie to me, I will let a part of your skin decay.", Beta told her seriously.

"I-It's an organization called Trottel! They heard some rumors about a Void Elementalist appearing in this area and contacted us to take a look. We were promised great rewards if we found you and they even gave us something upfront. That guy over there is the contact person. I don't know his name either.", Elise said with a shriek. If she died, she wanted to die with a complete body.

"Trottel? What a weird name... What kind of reward did they give to you upfront then? Where did they come from? Did you contact anyone about me?", Beta asked without pause.

"We don't know exactly where they are from either, but they should be somewhere north... We didn't contact anyone yet because we wanted to catch you first to get a better reward. They also gave us a powerful weapon. It should be on Dennis'."

"A powerful weapon huh… So, why didn't he use it if it's so powerful?"

"It uses up a huge amount of soulpower, so it's not good for lower levels like us. Especially since we can only use it once or twice with our current amount of soulpower. Also, we're not even sure how to use it properly. We only planned to sell it after this mission in the first place…", Elise explained.

Beta glanced at her once more before looting everybody they had killed. Except for Dennis and the stranger, no one had anything interesting. The stranger had a void bag, which was already enough of a reward for all the troubles they had gone through. Once he looked into it, he was even happier. Inside of the bag were several materials that he could use and he gladly accepted them. He was a bit disappointed that there was barely any money on him though, but at least the materials made more than up for it. As for Dennis...

"I would've never expected to see something like this again... I thought no one uses this stuff anymore.", Beta said as he looked at the weapon Elise was talking about - a gun.