43 Who Am I?

"Oh, what's that?" Jadel crouched down, his blue eyes twinkling with childlike curiosity as he spotted a small blue lizard scurrying nearby.

Kee! Kee!

It made a cute sound, hearing that, a soft smile spread across his face.

"It's so cute~" He rushed to the lizard and picked it up. His fingers gently rubbed it's back, his expression that of an innocent boy who had just found a new pet.

"Why are you so cut– ouch!" His words were cut off abruptly as the tiny lizard bit his finger.

Splash!

The atmosphere around him shifted in an instant. His eyes once soft and bright darkened, filling with cold menace as tears welled up in them. He stared at the lizard, his expression, his grip tightening.

Splat!

With a single squeeze, the small lizard's body was crushed in his hands, blue blood splattering over his fingers. His voice now icy broke the tense silence.

"Bad boy... biting when I only showed love." 

His innocent facade was gone, replaced by a cold face. He glared at the squashed creature before tossing its body aside.

His lips curled into a smile, growing wider and wider with satisfaction. "You have become even more cute now." He muttered. After a brief glance at the corpse, he dusted his hands and began walking, humming in the tone of a carefree child.

"Clear the dungeon, huh." His tone shifted one more, now dead, almost bored. "That's easy, peasy. I will just straight up target the Lizard boss and flee, hihihihi." His lighthearted laughter echoed as he walked deeper into the cavern.

Minutes passed and nothing appeared. The faint glow of mana stones guided him deeper, illuminating his path. The silence was only broken by him talking to himself and the scurrying of small lizards.

Pss! Pss!

A faint hissing sound caught his attention; Jadel's gaze instantly turned in that direction, spotting six lizards roaming around and eating mana stones. 

As an excited smile bloomed on his face, "I will take it from here. We need to conserve our mana and stamina and don't need to attract them." He said, his tone cold, eyes clouded by darkness.

'Ehhh! No fair! I wanna—'

"Keep quiet"

'Humph'

His hand reached for the daggers in his back, controlling his breathing, he surveyed their movements carefully.

"Fire type lizards, rank E- or E+." He whispered to himself, noting their distinctive blue color and span of 3 meters in length when they stood up. Every time they make a hissing sound, a blue fire comes out of their mouth.

'These types of lizards have a heightened sense of smell and can detect vibration in the ground, but they won't notice me.'

He took out the two bracelets and wore them on his hands. As he activated them, the nanobots slowly moved, covered his whole hands.

「Gravity Modulation」

Decreasing his body's gravity, he leapt to one of the lizards, slashing its back of the neck.

Clank! 

But his dagger bounced back, leaving only a scratch. 'Has a hard skin on the back that can't be easily penetrated by E rankers,' he noted. 

Seeing that it was attacked by an intruder, it suddenly tried to attack Jadel. Raw mana swirled around the monster, entering its mouth. The neck shone in blue as it was prepared to breathe fire at Jadel.

"No, you don't." increasing his body's gravity, he swiftly grabbed its neck, pointing its mouth at another lizard that was approaching him quickly.

Blaze!

A blazing blue fire left its mouth, hitting the lizard, making it halt its steps.

Without wasting any time, he spun around, arriving under the monster and slashing the neck.

Slash!

"Only the back of the neck is tough as well as his back body; when it comes to the front, it's soft as skin, good." 

He leaped to another monster gripping his dagger; he slashed its neck without using gravity modulation, leaving a fatal injury on the monster but not killing it.

"So, without gravity modulation, I can't one shot the monster, and it seems to be close to D- rank." He took a mental note of his analysis.

The darkness started to emerge from his shadow and twisted, covering his legs. As his legs were coated with shadow, with a blurring speed, he rushed, slashing the necks of the remaining four monsters one by one, instantly killing them.

"Analytical details… Correct."

'Using my skills, huh! How intresting.'

"Shut up."

「Absorption Gacha」

Ding!

__________________________

Mana: 3

Mana: 2

Strength: 2

Endurance: 2

Endurance: 2

Speed: 2

____________________________

"I need more points to breakthrough rank." Jadel murmured as he crouched beside the monster corpse.

He began butchering the monster, carefully extracting the mana cores. For him, mana core is crucial for mana engineering, and he can make a variety of gadgets with it.

He wiped the blood that splattered on his face and started walking to his destination with a stoic face. 

This time, he was neither a normal person nor a crazy guy. But this time he acted like a child but was at the same time a mature adult. 

Every time he sees some sparkling cute things, he will rush to them and pat their bodies, and when killing them, he will turn into a different person who has a cold demeanor, an assassin who enjoys the beauty of the blood.

Tumble! Thud!

His legs wobbled as he tried to walk. As his legs gave away, he fell to the ground with a thud. 

"Is not… not fully suppressed." He muttered the emotionaless face showing mild frustration. "Pesky bastards."

Now with an expression of dread, he stared at the empty space ahead of him, his eyes wide with confusion.

Drip! Drip! 

Blood dripped from his nose, but he didn't care about it. With furrowed eyebrows, he made the expression that he was recalling something but couldn't remember it.

"…W-who am I?" His voice trembled as he asked the question aloud, his face showing utter shock. His lips moved again, but no words came out. And then…

"Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?" He repeated the question over and over, like a broken machine.

Then suddenly, as it came, the fear passed, and a calm smile spread across his face.

"...Yeah, I'm Jadel…" 

Before he could process, a wave of blue flames shot towards him, illuminating the cavern with a fiery glow. 

Blaze!

"Don't disturb me." Screaming, he rushed at the small horde, which consists of seventeen monsters. 

「Core Release: 60 percent」 

「Gravity Modulation」

「Dash」

「Lost Gem」

「Shadow Monarch」

Unleashing his skills, he skillfully dodged all the attacks that were thrown at him. Arriving in front of the first monster, he sliced off its neck.

Swoosh!

His figure suddenly turned into smoke; like a ghost, he appeared in front of another monster, stabbing its eyes.

SQUEEEE!

The monster cried in pain, but he showed no mercy. 

「Dagger Art: Dark Slash」

Mana covered the whole dagger, completely engulfing it in darkness. Gripping his dagger tightly, he sliced its facial skeleton.

Grabbing its upper teeth, he ripped out the sliced skeleton, revealing a throat that was getting filled by the blood. 

The other monsters didn't dare attack him, as the monster's helpless, pained cry echoed throughout the cavern before its death. 

Normally his expression would be one of pleasure, but now he showed none of that. His face was devoid of any emotions.

"You guys don't want to attack." His cold voice resonated in the cavern, sending chills through their bodies as the monsters felt their demise was approaching. "Hhe, what am I asking a bunch of brainless monsters?"

His figure turned to smoke again as he disappeared from his spot.

SQUEAK! SQUEAK!

Monsters' constant, pained cries resounded in the cavern, sending jolts to other monsters that were close to him, causing them to flee in that place.

As the last monster crumbled to the ground, he paused. His face slowly shifting, the cold and expressionless turning into a wide smile of satisfaction.

He stared at the blood soaked scene before him, admiring the sheer brutality he did. But then, the same question crept back into his mind, the smile fading as he whispered to himself, "Who am I?"

He blinked then grinned again, his expression softening into that of a child. "Hihihi, I'm Jadel, my sister's cute little brother."

But as he took another step, his smile wavered, his hand reaching up to his head as if the pain of remembering something distant, something fractured, returned.

"Who is Jake?"

"No, no, I'm not Jadel... I'm Jake, Jake Dane." He said, his expression changing to dread.

"But I'm Jadel, though," he mumbled, switching to a cute, almost playful voice.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes I'm"

"No"

"Yes"

"No"

"Shut up." He commanded himself, his voice brimming with authority. 

His face returned to a blank, emotionless state as he overtook the body again. "I'm Jadel, my father's weapon." With those chilling words, he disappeared into the shadows