Little God

"Haaa, haa!"

Figures emerged from two of the paths, panting heavily with sweat rolling down their backs. They finished searching the two paths that ended at the dead end.

They couldn't find their target—Adam Palestar.

"Whoo, they haven't arrived yet?" One of the players noticed the absence of their strongest members, who ventured deep into the rightmost path.

A short-haired player pulled out a rusty timepiece from his loosely-hanging pants and checked the time. The hour was almost up.

"Maybe they found him?" One of them asked.

Before they could contemplate going down the right path, they heard footsteps nearing them.

At first, they smiled, but then they noticed something odd. It was easy to hear that there was only a single set of footsteps approaching.

Suddenly, a thick scent of blood overwhelmed them, and the weak-minded ones instantly covered their noses with their hands.

At that moment, a figure with a blood-soaked shirt emerged from the passageway. His ordinary-looking brownish basic shirt was now stained a deep crimson color. It was almost as if the figure wearing them was the one bleeding.

A few stains of dried blood could be seen on the neck area and around the ankle cuffs of his trousers.

"Who…"

They couldn't recognize him at first, as the blood took all their attention, but then their eyes regained their focus, and they realized it was their target, Adam.

"What did you do to Nick?!"

A sound of metal sliding out of a sheath echoed throughout the chamber.

The players held all kinds of weapons, from a broadsword to a dagger; one of them even had a broom, which wasn't much of a weapon, but the other end was pointed and sharp as if it were a hidden blade.

"Haaa…" Adam let out a long, thoughtful sigh. "He is dead. I killed them. Their corpses must've already vanished into the annals of forgotten tutorial takers."

The faces of the players immediately changed into expressions of shock and horror. They expected that to be the case, but for him to say it so casually, as if it were nothing but a trifling matter, was unsettling.

Their feet started to fidget nervously, and they started taking retreative steps back.

There were ten of them. They should have a clear advantage. Yet, they were afraid to make their move.

This was a far cry from real life.

The stench of blood, Adam's predator-like gaze, and the impending feeling of death hanging in the air paralyzed them with fear.

As their eyes were focused on Adam's pale-skinned face and the crimson shirt hugging his chest, they didn't notice that his legs were shaking uncontrollably.

If they looked at him even deeper, they would also notice that he could barely wield his shortsword. The steel blade was pointing towards the ground, and the hand holding it was trembling.

"W-we are sorry…"

They started backing off towards the singular path that led back to the first room on the third floor.

"We'll leave you alone."

"No." Adam said coldly, and with the last remaining strength, he raised his steel shortsword. "It is unacceptable… I can't… leave any of you alive… That wouldn't be… S-rank worthy…"

"Ngh!" The players paled and then screamed in frustration before pointing their weapons at Adam.

"We're not some weaklings!"

"Argh!"

Adam screamed in pain and moved his sword into a reverse grip. Then, his legs started shaking, and the ground began to crack as if he were standing on thin ice.

"Haaaa!" The players screamed and lunged forward at him.

Most of them looked desperate, knowing that killing him was going to be difficult, but that was their only chance, while the few were devoid of any hope of success.

Still, they all rushed forth and swung their weapons fiercely, hoping to strike a fatal blow.

"Ahhh!"

With a scream, Adam jumped at the players and suddenly started spinning around wildly—like a whirling beyblade—and as the sword was on the front, it looked like a steel tornado was coming right at them.

The players came to an instant stop, shocked at what was heading in their direction, and instantly tried to dodge out of the way.

At that moment, while spinning around, Adam extended his sword-wielding hand and cut through the throats of two of the players.

It was such a quick attack that they didn't have any chance to do anything as they instantly died—it was Instant Kill.

Adam stopped spinning, and as he was about to smash into a wall, he smashed his feet against the wall to cushion the impact.

Immediately afterwards, the wall cracked as Adam sprang back into the air with a blinding speed that made him look like a blur of steel.

"W-what the hell is this?!" One of them watched as Adam moved around the room like a flash of silver lightning. "I-is this a skill or something? A human being cannot do this!"

Those were her last words as Adam, like a flash of lightning, appeared in front of her and separated her head from her shoulders with one clean strike.

Adam, his eyes glinting in crimson, landed on the ground for a split second and immediately started spinning like a whirlwind, his sword slicing through the players near them.

Another two players were unfortunately too close, causing the shortsword to slice through their heads. It was another Instant Kill. They were unable to stop him.

"Argh!" Adam stopped spinning for a moment, coughed blood, but immediately gritted his teeth and sprang straight back into the air.

He jumped towards the ceiling, then started spinning around again, like a steel beyblade, and cut straight through one of the players. He cut it right through him, straight from the middle, making his body fall to the ground in two pieces.

"T-this is not happening!"

A player who witnessed his friends dying left and right thought he was having a nightmare for a moment. At that moment, he also noticed something.

"H-he is only going for Instant Kills. He wants to kill us all as quickly as possible!"

Swoosh, Spurt!

As his words left his lips, his head suddenly left his torso, and the player was able to still see his body standing there through his eyes as his head slowly headed towards the ground.

However, before his head thudded on the ground, his vision turned black. Another aspiring mercenary died.

Adam let out a furious cry and again flashed across the room, looking for another target, and he continued doing that. Moving around the room at blitzering speed, cutting through the air and wind itself.

Yet his sword didn't taste blood anymore, as all the players were already dead on the ground.

"Cough!" Adam coughed blood and collapsed on both knees, his sword slowly slipping from his grasp.

The shortsword landed on the ground, the blade covered in blood, and it looked more dull than before. It had reached the limit of its durability.

It's durability was already below ten percent, and it would only do half of the damage from now on.

'I-I knew… This was going to put my body beyond my limits, but this is shocking…'

As Adam opened his mouth, blood poured out like a river, staining his teeth and lips.

'T-this isn't any skill that one can acquire through scrolls. This is a skill—the rarest kind—Mythical Skill. These kinds of skills can only be learned through direct learning from the person who created them.

'I didn't think I was able to use it after the regression. I thought it was impossible. I guess since it wasn't bound to my avatar through skill scrolls, but instead via direct learning, I was able to keep it somehow.

'At first, the system interface didn't show that I had this skill. However, when I was training, I noticed that... or more like, felt that I could use it and I did manage to do so. This was my first time properly using it though, in this life...

'I can't use any of my other skills, like I couldn't use Strong Force, as all of my other skills were learned from skill scrolls. Still, that is fine.

'For now, my body is far too weak to keep it up for long. It is also quite weak compared to what I was able to accomplish with it in my previous life. Still, it can be my trump card.

'This is a skill that can save my life in the future…

'The Mythical Skill—Little God.'