First Contact
It's been around ten days, and I've been only exploring
Grinding monsters can be extremely boring, especially when you can one shot them.
I bet your probably thinking...
"IsN't iT ToP PrIorIty tO gEt to LevEl Te-
Shut up.
Why don't you die, join the Fight After Death, and grind to level ten.
Anyway, nothing much has happened, I am now level 7 from all of the passive grinding, no valuable drops. Goblin legs are still tasty, I'm still lost.
In other words, I'm bored.
I realized I have been neglecting sin energy, so I started to train it by moving it through my body constantly, this way it would increase in capacity by a little bit, I called this sin rotation. I don't even have to know this is the method due to the amount of novels with this training method. I also noticed that when every I did this, my mark would glow rotating in a circle.
I also used sin energy to climb and explore more, as I have said, no fascinating discoveries yet.
Enabling sin rotation that had become second nature to me by now. Right now, I could only absorb about roughly twenty percent of my full sin pool, but I couldn't complain, it was more than enough, I'm afraid any more would yeet me into the air.
I climbed a few branches up the nearest tree and situated myself once I got high enough. I focused sin energy into only my eyes, enhancing my vision even further.
What I was looking for wasn't a way out but more so for any signs of humans. Making contact with any intelligent life at this point would help me find a way out of his forest..
After about ten minutes of searching, jumping from tree to tree, I found what I was looking for.
I hopped a few more trees, feeling quite proud of my primate nimbleness, stopping at a branch just a few meters away. Hiding myself behind the thick trunk, I observed the group of humans. It's been so long since I've talked to someone, one week may not seem like a lot, but it was. I was about to drop down and reach them, but...
Something was off.
I hid myself completely behind the trunk and closed my eyes, imbuing sin energy into my ears.
"NOOO! HELP! SOMEONE PLEASE HELP! MOMMY! DADDY! NOOO I'M SCARED!!!"
"Someone shut her up! She's going to attract attention!"
*THUD*
"Quick. Put her in the back of the carriage. We're only a few days away from the mountain range. We'll be safer then. Don't relax and keep moving."
"Hey, Boss? How much do ya reckon she'll sell for? dragon girls go for a lot, don't they? Hehe, she's a child too so a virgin at that! I bet she'll fetch us a lot of money, huh!"
Slave traders!
I carefully took a peek to spot the small-sized carriage, enough to tightly cram in about five or six adults. I turned back around just in time to see a middle-aged man hauling a little girl into the back of the carriage. She looked to be around 12-13, with black hair and amber eyes with horns protruding out of her head, unlike Jigoku's whos were like a crown, hers are more of an arch coming from their foreheads.
What should I do? How were they even able to kidnap one in the first place? Dragons were insanely powerful, the only reason they aren't conquering the world right now was because they don't have a dragon king, a being of absolute power, surpassing the rank of SSS, becoming a god like entity, and EX rank being, such beings could be counted on one hand.
That dragonoid girl was the only chance I had out of here, dragons had long lifespans, even if they seemed to be in there teens, they may be over a hundred years old. At around 18, they could control their aging. But if that was so, how could she be so easily subdued, dragons were stupidly powerful by the time they were fully grown. Seems like she is young then. Even then, she could still be helpful. Plus, its not right to let things like this slide. Asel wouldn't approve.
After letting out another deep breath, I couldn't help but notice how often I sighed these days.
After hours of observation, I had learned enough about them to make a move. I waited until nightfall to take my plan into action. Despite their rustic appearances, the slave traders were surprisingly vigilant; they never built a fire and always kept two people on guard at all times.
After stirring up the forest hounds that were driving the cart with a carefully thrown rock, I made my move as soon as one of the two on guard went around to the other side of the carriage to quiet them.
The one that stayed behind was sitting on a fallen log, fiddling with something in his hands while the other two were sleeping inside the tent. Carefully, jumping to a branch directly above the carriage, I prepared for my attack.
My first target would be the one that had gone to quiet the forest hounds first.
I dropped down with a quiet thud behind one of the slave traders. This man had a very lanky build. While lean muscles were visible, he didn't seem too strong and was only armed with a long knife.
Startled by the soft thud, lanky turned around probably expecting a curious weasel or rat. His face twisted into a mixture of surprise and amusement when he saw me, a mature adult in ragged clothes.
But before he had the chance to even speak, I lunged upward towards his neck. I took my draxe out of my inventory and used gravity style to throw the draxe.
He flinched back reflexively, dodging to the right, but it was too late.
I take a quick swipe at the jugular, taking his vocal chord out along with his carotid artery. A stream of blood sprayed out of his neck immediately as I land behind him, supporting his lifeless body and gently placing him down to avoid making noise. Just as expected, the forest hounds that had just been calmed down by the man jolted back awake at the stench of blood causing them to howl and bark.
"Ey Abhi! Can't even calm the hounds…What the?!"
I had already picked up… Abhi's knife and was waiting for him at the back corner of the carriage.
While the other slave trader's attention was directed at the corpse of Abhi, currently being eaten by the forest hounds, I jumped out from behind and stabbed the side of his neck with the knife.
The hounds quieted down while devouring the two corpses. As I headed towards the tent to dispose of the remaining two in their sleep, a shrill cry ruined my plans.
"HELLLLP! MOMMY! SOMEONE! ANYONE! PLEASE!!"
Son of a… why now of all times?
On cue, I heard the rustle of the tent as the two slave traders that were left had come out. "Abhi! Teucer! The kid is awake! What the hell are you guys…" He barked, still half asleep.
I swallowed down the inappropriate urge to laugh at the ridiculous names of the slave traders, and hid myself behind a tree next to the carriage and infused mana into my arm.
Sensing something was amiss, the two remaining slave traders carefully stepped around to the other side of the carriage where their eyes bulged upon upon witnessing their two former companions being eaten by the forest hounds.
Using this chance, I attacked the nearest one when his gaze whips back at me and instantly swings his short sword at my face.
Dodging the slash, I dropped low and dashed toward him, trying to get in the range of my hand. I grabbed his leg, using gravity style to increase my momentum, I tore through his right leg's Achilles' heel.
"Gah!!" he let out a pained howl as he dives desperately out of my range before I could do any further damage.
"Dong, be careful! I think this brat is a warrior," the fighter, whose tendon I just severed, cried.
I turned my attention to Big Dong as he pulled out his sword from its sheath and lower into a defensive stance.
"You see all sorts of crazy things these days! Looks like a huge sack of gold just showed itself in front of us, Peen! I bet he'll get us almost as much as the dragon," he let out a crazed chuckle.
These bastards didn't even care that I just killed their party members.
Dong's body glowed faintly as he reinforced his body with mana. As he advanced towards me, his lips curled into a confident grin on his square face.
Peen was out of the fight with that crippled leg, but this mage was going to be trouble.
The swordsman named Dong suddenly jumped above me, his right arm poised to throw a punch. I could only guess that his only reason for not using his sword was to not damage his "goods". While I'd normally be offended, in this case, overconfidence made it much easier for me so I didn't complain.
I jumped back in time to avoid the blow strong enough to leave a small dent in the ground as I threw Abhi's knife at him. But when it hit, it seemed a mana barrier was blocking it, he then grabbed it mid air.
Shit.
I was in a bad position right now. Dong wasn't tall but his reach was still a good amount longer than mine. He also had a sword, which he now deemed it necessary to use, that further increased his range.
Wasting no time, Dong dashed toward me and threw back the knife that I had just launched at him. I easily dodged, but not in time to react for his next move as he swiped my ankle with his sheathe. As I stumbled to regain balance, he used that chance to grab ahold of my ankle and flipped me upside down.
His confident face crumpled as I punched the hand that was holding onto me with concentrated sin energy.
A loud crack, followed by a howl of profanities indicated the attack was enough.
His broken wrist released my ankle and I landed awkwardly on my back. Quickly jumping up to my feet, I picked up Abhi's knife and used the chance to charge towards the wounded Dong. While he was still preoccupied by the pain from his wrist, he angrily cursed, "You're DEAD now you piece of shit! I don't care if I can't sell you anymore!"
His left wrist was wounded, leaving a gap in his defense. I willed more sin energy into my feet and arrived in range, about to land a solid hit to his side, when I see him furiously swinging his sword down.
He fell for it!
I quickly pivot with my left foot in place, spinning to my right. Dodging the swing by a hair's breadth, I enter into my knife's range to his right side, open because of his last desperate swing.
He immediately tried to jump back but I placed my right foot behind his leg making him lose his balance. In one quick thrust, I jabbed my knife below his armpit, through the gap between his ribs and into his lungs.
He was easy to finish off after his breath was collapsing from the wound.
I was now left with the immobile Peen.
The poor fighter couldn't really contest or run away with his useless leg and died with a look of disbelief. Much like his two comrades, fed to the hounds.
I climbed up onto the back of the carriage where she was locked and I spotted her shivering in the corner with dirty rags minimally covering her privates. She studied me in surprise and doubt, her eyes almost saying, 'He can't have been the one who save me, right?'