First Floor (III): Honor

Rezar knew that no matter how he made his movements, he would still be flanked by the little sheep's and bosses, but above all else he had to make sure he drew the attention of the minotaur's to himself instead of the nobles, they were absolutely not ready to face this kind of odds, heck he didn't even think anyone of them was ready to face any sort of odds. So he had to take all of the pressure, if not for their sake but for his, a hair of theirs missing only meant that his ass would get kicked.

[ROT]

The minotaur coming from the left let out a roar of indignation, anger and pain as the skill appeared on his shoulder, happily eating away at his defined muscles. Thankfully, he knew who was responsible and charged after Rezar, his massive Axe digging furrows in the ground as he went after the Young Necromancer. Rezar didn't waste time, he made a beeline for the other Minotaur, and the other followed closely.

Rezar kept charging at the minotaur with the spiked mace, and the fact that he would even have the audacity to do so drove it made with anger. It smashed its mace on the ground, blasting dredges of earth and ripped out grass into the air, meanwhile the minotaur with the Axe was drawing closer, his horns pointed squarely at Rezar's back, ready to gore the seemingly fleeing necromancer, however.

[Apparition]

He turned into a mass of shadows, blocking the sight of the minotaur in front for the fraction of a second, shocking the mace wielding minotaur, before moving out of the way for it to be gored by the axe wielding minotaur. Rezar won't say he's had the pleasure of seeing a cow or bull gore someone before, but this was a prime example as the horn went clean through the chest of the Mace Minotaur. And the Axe Minotaur in its blind rage did not even care as it lifted the other minotaur into the air with it still hanging from its horns, and then its brought body crashing down to the ground with a loud thud.

Even when the minotaur pulled out its horns, it still didn't stop attacking, bashing away ferociously at its comrade with its axe until suddenly its right arm fell off, prompting another pained scream and yell. From the look of things [Rot] had still carried out its due process, and it was for a lot longer than Rezar had expected. He didn't hesitate as he moved forwards, his sword gleaming as it sliced through the back of the minotaur's neck.

Rezar didn't have enough power, neither was the sword sharp enough to cut clean through the incredibly thick and well-muscled neck of the minotaur, but it was enough for Rezar to use a skill that was required to end the fight. [Reap] a flash of black and grey was seen on the edge of the blade, before a system prompt showed up in front of Rezar.

[Soul of Dungeon Minotaur absorbed level 18(elite) mini-boss, power and defense raised by 15% for 15 minutes]

This was a longer duration than the fire ant, not to mention he had an increase in both power and defense, a 15% increase. He only wished there was a way he could store the soul and use it for later, but for now this was what he had to make do with. He hurried back to help the nobles get rid of the monsters they were facing, thankfully there was not a scratch or a hair missing, but he was in for the shock of his life.

"Thank you so much for your help Slave! With the amount of Exp earned we can all get our main combat class to level 10 with ease, seems that minotaur you killed weren't normal monsters. We thank you, and your rewards would be waiting outside for you… if you survive that is. Goodbye!" Boris said as he and his sister vanished in a flash of light leaving Reinhart and Rezar behind.

He blinked his eyes, and then blinked it again. He knew this was a possibility, but he didn't actually think that something like this would happen. The people he was asked to look after had actually jumped ship and abandoned him, it was so expected but yet so funny that he couldn't help but start laughing, and even though he wanted nothing more than to find Boris and rip his throat out, he still laughed harder. Then he turned to Reinhart who was still standing there, a bow in hand.

"why are you still here, aren't you supposed to follow them?" he asked as he moved closer to the young boy, however with each step he took, he noticed how hard the boy's knees knocked against each other, he was scared of him. But unlike previous times, this time he didn't lash out in fear, he just stood there seemingly frozen and sweating before giving an answer.

"I'm not like them, the agreement was that we'll stick with you and you'll keep us safe. You've held up your end of the bargain and the dungeon run isn't over yet. Whether we're nobles or not, it would be extremely unfair for us to abandon you to your fate like this, not after all the help you've given. There's no honor in that." Rezar raised an eyebrow at that, was this kid stupid or something, even he didn't think he had the predisposition to make the choice this kid just made.

"what would your honor be worth if you lose your life over a stranger you just met today and just under an hour ago. Going this far for me is stupid, do you think if I was in your shoes I wouldn't run. No one is worth your life kid, not even your wife.

People can't be trusted, and in a world where you can live as many lives as the stars in the sky; things like honor, respect or a moral compass seems irrelevant. There's always a reset button kid, honor is for the naïve." Rezar said to him as he ruffled the boy's hair with a small smile on his face.

"I don't think so…Re..Re-Rezar. If there's no value in being true to ourselves then we don't deserve eternity. No matter how many lives we have, we should always try to not only live it to the fullest, but live it with honor and honesty. It's easy to just live and look out for yourself and not fully care about the consequences of your actions because you would definitely have a reset button pushed once you die.

But your honor should live on, with so many lives lived it might seem useless, but being good and honorable or even evil, but still having honor and being known for it shows that we've not become what Elysium has turned us all into. Ones and zeros with no shadow of humanity left. There's more evil in this paradise than they ever were in the real world, even if it's stupid and naïve, I'd like to leave behind some goodness, it shows I'm different, that somehow, someway the goodness of humanity still lives on. And if even one person will remember me for my honor, then it means I've lived every life well."

Rezar blinked, this boy had given him a lot to think about, and in ways he honestly never expected. It was nice if he had to be honest.

"I still think you're a naïve fool, but I get your point kid. But never the less get out of here, you would only get in my way, let me handle this. Once I'm done, buy me a drink in that fancy town of yours, then we can talk all about the philosophy of honor till you get tired. Right now though, I have monsters to slay."