Chapter 18 - Killing the Minotaur

Now having both 10 points in both Agility and Strength, Darius's stats were a little better. But they still had a long way to go obviously.

Ashe had told him that most people when awakening had at least 5 in all stats, which was quite different from Darius who had only one in each one.

Just imagine how weak he was.

"So, Ashe are we going to do the same thing tomorrow?" asked Darius, wanting to know if they were going to hunt the same monsters or not as it was becoming quite redundant for Darius and he wanted a breath of fresh hair.

"Um, I don't know do you want to head to the Avalon Empire now or continue hunting monsters? It's your choice, I'll do what you want," said Ashe, knowing that this wasn't a choice that she could make.

Darius would have to make it on his own and that was it.

"Sure, we should head toward the Avalon Empire maybe I could go buy some things before joining, it's not like I'll keep that dagger forever," said Darius as he got the dagger that Ashe had given him to cut her.

He felt bad about all the things that she had done for him, and he thought that the least he could do was give her back her equipment as he had stolen five years of her life.

It wasn't a fair deal, but well, in life nothing is fair.

But, before Ashe could refuse him giving it back, Darius added something remembering the Minotaur which he had seen not so long ago.

He remembered that he had promised himself that he would be able to kill it before leaving for the academy and it was now time to prove it.

The Entrance Ceremony of the Royal Academy would start in three days and he didn't know how long it would take the Avalon Empire as he knew that it was quite the distance from here as Darius could barely see it.

"But, before we leave there's something I need to do," muttered Darius as Ashe became somewhat confused.

"What do you have to do?" she asked, unsure of what he was talking about.

"The Minotaur, I want to kill it," said Darius with confidence as he put down his plate on the table while standing up.

Ashe seeing this wasn't sure if it was the best idea at the moment, but she still decided to follow him as she knew that she would be able to save him if any problems were to arise.

"Alright, follow me," she uttered as she also stood up and went outside this little shack.

Then, the two of them started running into the dark as it was night outside.

It really wasn't the best time to be doing such a thing, however, Darius was determined and he didn't have any time to lose as he followed Ashe quite well.

However, he was still exhausted when going at her pace as he still had one point in his Stamina.

He hoped that the Minotaur would be able to give some Stamina Stats because he would have to run for a long time to reach the Empire.

Then, Darius glanced in front of him as he could faintly hear stomps from this far away. The ground was shaking a little as heard those stomps. It seemed like the Minotaur still wasn't sleeping and was walking around looking for prey.

However, what it didn't know was that this time it was the prey.

Darius didn't look any time as he dashed in that direction accelerating as much as he could while being careful not to make too much noise as he knew that their vision wasn't the best.

Ashe was already close to the Minotaur as she had a good view of it. She had obviously caught up to Darius and was now hiding in one of the trees close to it.

Darius, on the other hand, only started to barely see the figure of the Minotaur as he accelerated toward it at quite a fast pace, dagger in hand.

'Let's make this a short fight,' thought Darius as he knew that he shouldn't try and fight such a muscular monster in the long run as he would simply lose.

Over the few days, he had thought of a few ways to kill such a monster and only one seemed possible, well... in his mind.

The only way that he had found was to kill this beast in one clean strike which was why when he killed goblins or wolves he always tried to aim for their heads.

And he had gotten better at it as he had learned how to control his strength, however, this time he knew that he needed to hold nothing back and simply go all out as this monster wasn't something that he could kill easily like a goblin or a wolf.

This one would actually take some of his concentration.

Then, as he arrived closer to it, he quickly observe its figure trying to see where the neck of the minotaur was located as it was so tall that it was actually hard to see from the ground.

He barely spotted it, but he did as he didn't lose any more time and simply jumped up dagger in hand ready to decapitate that monster in one strike.

It wasn't the first that he was trying to pull off such moves as he had done a lot in his previous, but it was the first that he was attempting it on such a big monster which was why he was somewhat stressed as to what would happen.

Then, as he was in the air, he prepared the strike of his dagger just like he would do with any other monster and went for it.

*SLASH*

The head of the Minotaur fell to the ground as the Minotaur hadn't known about the attack and was defeated as easily as that.

Then, its body started disappearing as a beeping sound resounded inside Darius's head.

*BEEP*

[You have stolen the Life Essence of a Minotaur's body.]

[Do you want to you use to live longer or get stronger?]

This time, Darius didn't answer right away as he knew that he could get some Lifespan from such a big monster, so he quickly debated in his head.

But ultimately, he decided to get stronger, another beeping sound was heard in his mind.

[You have gained 10 points in Stamina.]

"10 Points?! Because of one strike!" shouted Darius, as he simply couldn't believe it.

Seeing that the Minotaur had just disappeared Ashe got out of her hiding spot and ran as fast as she could since she had just heard Darius shout.