Chapter 196: Silent Night?
Chapter 196: Silent Night?
It was another insane day in the unnamed village. The sun was bright and shined throughout the area. It was a hot day. Hot in many other ways as well. There were seven reported murders this morning. The villagers began to grow paranoid. Some had even thought of moving elsewhere. But it was difficult to move somewhere else when amidst an outright apolocalypse.
You could only get that far when the world was in ruins. Voids scanned the areas, searching for people to destroy. Earthen creatures still roamed surreptitiously, trying to get revenge on the people who put an end to magic.
***
The following night, the Hunters, Rosita and William were assigned to the role of the surveillance team after the rise in deaths. They were to watch the village, and search for any suspicious acts or persons committing treason. It was now their job to look out for the prowlers.
Rosita and William patrolled the village together, both of them kept their eyes slit. They were extremely exhausted after a long day. It looked like they had a long night ahead of them as well.
William scoffed. “This sucks …”
“It does,” Rosita agreed.
William walked alongside her. “Why didn’t they put another team up to the task? Our duo is working the hardest.”
“Well,” Rosita said, “we’ve resolved the least problems. The most we did together was stop that guy from stealing. Other than that, we’ve done nothing but quarrel with eachother.”
William smirked. “Look at us now.”
Rosita elbowed him to his arm. “Shut up. I had no other choice but to join your team. Gerardo chose to be on his own—he think he’s a genius who can solo everything. Earl chose to be alone as usual. I think Earl is on the scout team with a couple of villages, so he’s probably outside the walls scavenging for goods alongside some weaklings. Then, there’s Kai and the new guy. They’ve done enough. I think they took care of around twenty crimes together.”
“They say Kai does everything,” William said, “all the work. The new guy’s lazy.”
“What?” Rosita grimaced at him.
William shrugged. “So I heard. Rumors from the villagers.”
“I don’t know,” Rosita said, “he looks pretty cocky. I heard he fought the Wizard and Kai at the same time.”
“Yeah,” William said, “And Wiz and Kai won, obviously.”
“That’s not the point, William.” Rosita rolled her eyes.
It went quiet for a while. That was until William looked at Rosita. He blushed and looked away. He had been meaning to ask her out for over two days. Never mustered the bravery.
“Hey, Rosita,” he averted his eyes, scratching his head.
“What?” She asked.
He grew rubsecent. Thank the heavens she couldn’t see the redness since it was so dark. “I … I was uh … I was wondering uhmmm,” he then looked at her, swallowing his fear, “I was wondering if you could go on a—”
Suddenly they heard screaming in the distance. One of the village lights came on. Rosita grew her blade. He started sprinting. “We got trouble up north.”
William nodded. “Right.”
He watched as Rosita ran off.
He frowned. Then, he shook his head and started sprinting toward the house in the distance.
Rosita rushed up the stairs, and burst through the door of the house. He put her sword in front of her as soon as entered the house, sliding on her feet.
William walked in after her. He sniffled. A metallic scent entered his nostrils. He furrowed his brows. “This place is full of blood.”
Rosita looked up. There was a wooden ceiling overhead. Blood dripped from the space between a vertical piece of wood.
Rosita looked at William. “He’s upstairs.” She whispered.
Rosita walked around the house until she found a stairway to the second floor. She looked at William. William nodded. Then, she looked ahead again and started walking up the stairs. She kept her sword at the ready.
He suddenly dashed upstairs, and looked around. She looked right, then she looked left. There were two human bodies on the floor, swathed in blood, dead. Then, her eyes widened when she looked down. She gasped, squeezing her sword tighter.
About four meters away from her was a four legged creature. The creature possessed green glowing eyes, and beastly fangs and pointy ears. This creature had not any fur. It possessed pitch black skin, with same bands of gold around its legs.
William trembled. “What is that thing?”
“Couldn’t be more clueless,” Rosita said, slowly retreating.
The creature growled.
“Get ready to fight,” Rosita said, “this thing is a monster.”
Thw creature growled louder.
William tried to tame it a bit. “E-easy boi—”
Suddenly the creature pounced at them. Rosita shoved William aside and slashed her blade at the creature. It vanished. She got nothing but air.
It appeared in the other end of the room.
“It possessed teleportation!” William snapped.
The creature suddenly barked. A huge shockwave escaped its mouth and went straight for Rosita and William. The shockwave hit them. They slammed into the wall behind them. The dog used this as its chance to strike. It pounced into the air at them.
Rosita couldn’t slash at it in time. She was about to get bitten when suddenly the creature just vanished.
Rosita’s eyes swept the room, but she still couldn’t find the dog. She waited it to reappear. After two whole minutes of waiting, she sighed. She looked at William.
William seemed paralyzed. “I’m convinced that that thing is the mole.”
Rosita didn’t speak. She simply furrowed her brows. “Then we find it,” she started down the stairs.
***
Jin sat down his bed, bored as one could ever be. His eyes were slit. He had nothing going on for him, and he couldn’t sleep.
[Your tamed beast [Benji] has evolved!]
[Your tamed beast [Benji] has unlocked the Fire Ability]
Jin bolted upright. His eyes widened. “Benji!” He snapped.
He shook his head. “No, that’s impossible, I let him eat the bodies and then I had him disappear again. I dismissed him.”
Cliff appeared right next to Jin on the bed. “It is possible. You weren’t feeding Benji well enough. At time he can go against the system and do what he wants. He summoned himself yesterday. That’s why there was a spike in murders.”
Jin looked at Cliff. “Please tell me he’s not the mole.”
“He’s not,” Cliff said, “He’s just the one responsible for the seven murders yesterday and the fourteen today. He works at night. All he does is eat to grow stronger. When you build the bind between yourself and Benji, you’ll be able to gain from his gains instead it being the opposite way around all the time.”
“Thank God he’s not the mole,” Jin sighed, “that would be very disappointing. It would explain the teleportation though. But still very disappointing. If Benji’s the mole—there’ll be no fun. No huge battle.”
“Is that all you think about?” Cliff narrowed his eyes at Jin.
Jin smirked.
Cliff shook his head and looked away. “You’re becoming more like your predecessors, y’know that right?”
Jin shrugged. “I’m aiming to be better than them. I will be the last successor of this system.”
“Well,” Cliff sighed, “you’ve already got the arrogance to be the next Loki. Don’t let me down. Maybe you can make a change to the character.”
Jin grimaced at him. “What do you mean?”
“The God Loki is always known as the same thing. Arrogant, powerful, deceptive—I was just saying that you should maybe aim to make it a bit … you know what,” he sighed, “forget it.”
“No,” Jin said, “I wanna hear what you have in mind.”
[Successor Revelation in two minutes]
“Forget it. What you should focus on is leveling up,” Cliff stood, “you’ll need all the power you can get. I’m liking the progress you’re making nowadays—keep it up. I’ll be watching you,” he paused. “Oh and … one thing to not forget is Benji. He’ll have the whole village eaten by the end of the week at this rate. He’s about to battle two Hunters right now.”
Jin stood. “Yeah. I need to dismiss him.”
Jin thought about dismissing him, and it happened. He then summoned Benji. But he didn’t appear before him.
Jin looked at Cliff. “Cliff, how come he’s not right in front of me.”
[Successor Revelation in 3s]
“Probably a system glitch. Or Benji resisted your summoning and hindered it. He’s outside right now though. Outside of the house.”
[Succsssor Revelation in 2s]
Jin tried dismissing him but it didn’t work. He quickly got up. He started toward the door. He couldn’t afford for Kai and Kaylie to see Benji.
[Successor Revelation in 1s]
He was walking through the house, approaching the front door. There, he saw Kaylie, in the middle of the kitchen, getting something in fridge. She turned to face him. “Oh hey, Jin. Good—”
Suddenly a gold ring started to manifest around her neck. A green ring appeared around Jin’s. Jin’s eyes bulged in shock.