Chapter 14 — Caution

Chapter 14 — Caution

What a morning… I slowly sat up and let out a huge yawn. Why did I even lie down right on the stone floor to sleep? Weird. Whatever… I actually feel surprisingly good, even though it seems I spent the entire night lying on the ground.

Time to wash up a little.

At that exact moment, yesterday came rushing back—my encounter with Rem, that icy look, the blade at my throat… and the promise of sudden death. I had to prove to her that I really do have a skill that lets me level up so quickly.

Yesterday I was working on a task. I had only a little left to go… and then I blacked out.

Was I poisoned? Did Rem poison me? No, that’s silly. Her sword didn’t even break the skin.

And it’s strange… Why did I pass out the moment I drank a health potion?

How long was I unconscious? Do I even feel…—I flexed my arms and legs, bounced on my feet. — No, I feel great. Like I slept well.

So it wasn’t… It… It definitely doesn’t feel like poisoning. If it were, I wouldn’t feel this good right now.

I don’t know how any of this works. Damn. Stop overthinking it.

Right. I need to finish the task, earn the experience, and prove to Rem that everything I said is true.

--

[Quest No. 25 completed.

Gained +5,000,000 EXP.]

[Status]

[Name: Alisar
[Level: 45
EXP: 22,560/2,800,000
Rank: 3

HP: 5,690 (+720)
MP: 8,580 (+720)

Strength: 201 (+24)
Defense: 187 (+24)
Speed: 181 (+24)
Intelligence: 190 (+24)
Magic Power: 185 (+24)
Magic Defense: 331 (+24)

Free Attribute Points: 192 (+192)

Skills: —

Special Skills:
• Training Room (Rank 2)
• Alchemy (Rank 1)

Okay, I’m level 45 now. That should be enough to prove I really do have a skill that lets me level up fast. Right? Plus three levels—surely that’s enough. Should I finish one more task?

No… I’m out of water. It ran out yesterday. Without access to the river I can’t refill. And there’s no food in here either.

Yeah, this should be enough.

How long have I been in here? Ten… twelve hours? No, I was unconscious—I don’t know how long I slept. Maybe ten hours? Fifteen? Or just five? I have no idea.

Enough pointless thinking—I’m not going to find out anyway.

I focused on the thought of leaving.

In the next instant, I was standing beside my tent in the ravine.

I was sure Rem would be right in front of me… but she wasn’t.

I glanced around.

Empty.

She isn’t here.

Maybe she decided I ran away and just left?

Yeah… if that’s the case, even better.

No time to waste.

Quickly pack the tent—and get as far from here as possible.

No, forget the tent and everything in it. I’ll just go… not wasting another second.

I thought that, took a couple steps to get away, to start running…

And then I froze.

That same feeling of fear pinned me in place again.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I heard Rem’s voice.

And again that sensation—cold steel at my throat. I turned my head slowly. Rem was standing right behind me.

“Nowhere… I didn’t mean…” I croaked.

“Stop lying.”

“Well… I just thought you’d left. So I decided to get far away from here,” I admitted honestly.

“Good. That’s closer to the truth,” Rem said, finally taking the blade from my neck and slowly sheathing it.

“Well then…” She studied me carefully. “It seems what you said about your skill… is true. No one could raise their level that much in under ten minutes.” Rem narrowed her eyes slightly. “And it seems you really haven’t killed anyone.”

When she said that last part, an image flashed into my mind—me killing that black boar. My sword coming down on its back again and again, hot blood spraying.

It looked like Rem noticed something change in my face… or maybe I imagined it?

“Whom did you kill?” she asked coldly, her hand settling on her sword hilt.

“N-no, no, no… I just killed a big boar!” I blurted, my voice shaking. “It attacked me first…”

I pray it wasn’t Rem’s trained animal.

Damn! What if that black boar was her pet?

Please… don’t let that boar be Rem’s pet.

I started praying silently, a chill running down my back.

“And that’s what you call killing? Killing a boar?” Rem arched a brow.

“Well… it wasn’t my fault. It attacked me. I couldn’t run. If I hadn’t killed it, it would have killed me,” I said, trying to justify myself.

And then I heard a second voice. Or rather, laughter. Soft, somewhere nearby.

Rem suddenly covered her mouth with her hand.

For a second I could have sworn she was… laughing? Yes, she was trying to stifle it with her palm.

Are you laughing at me? flickered through my mind. No… probably just my imagination.

I heard footsteps approaching and turned my head.

Someone else was coming. When the figure drew closer, there was no doubt—as I expected, it was Sherial.

When Sherial reached us, a broad, satisfied smile lit up her face.

“So, Rem, is your teasing the kid finally over?” she said, not bothering to hide the mockery in her voice.

“Hey, enough,” Rem replied, frowning slightly. “Don’t say it like that…”

She covered her mouth again, but her eyes made it clear she was barely holding back laughter.

“Because I kind of feel the same way…” she added, turning aside as if to hide her expression.

A kid? She meant me?

I’m at least ten years older than they are… I think.

Obviously I couldn’t say that out loud.

From the way they behaved, from the way they glanced at each other and chuckled, I started to wonder if this was all… a joke?

Was everything that happened just a joke?

When Rem held that blade to my throat—before I even processed that it was actually touching my skin—the fear I felt was… absolute. So strong it completely paralyzed me.

Nothing else compares. Not even the fear I felt before that black boar.

Yes, the boar could have killed me, but I stayed clear-headed, pulled myself together… and even beat it, though it was physically much stronger. Its level was lower, but in raw power and speed it far outclassed me.

But with Rem… it was different. This fear was on another level.

It felt like my body had surrendered in advance. Like I didn’t have even a sliver of a chance to survive.

--

A couple hours passed. Rem and Sherial had already gotten a fire going and cooked some meat. I don’t know what animal it was, but the taste… Damn, it was the best meat I’ve ever eaten. At least ten times better than the best meat I’d ever tasted in my life. And all they did was roast it over an open flame here in the ravine, no sauces—just a little salt and a few simple spices.

After Rem sheathed her sword and walked over to Sherial, they explained the situation to me.

Seeing how they laughed back then, I assumed this was just a cruel joke. A very cruel one. But it turned out it wasn’t a joke at all. Rem really had been ready to kill me. Even Sherial—she’d been nearby with her bow drawn, ready to put an arrow through my head the moment I did anything suspicious.

Basically, it all happened because I jumped from level ten to level forty-two in a single day. And if you think about it logically—no one can level that fast. Something abnormal has to be going on.

The first possible reason is money. Very wealthy people—like members of the royal family—can buy experience potions in huge quantities. But even for them, it’s nearly impossible. There just aren’t that many potions available—not on the market of the entire kingdom.

And the second reason… The one Rem and Sherial most likely suspected. Sometimes—extremely rarely, maybe one person in hundreds of thousands, or even millions—awakens a special ability. People call those abilities “dark” skills. Strictly speaking, skills aren’t inherently light or dark—it depends on how they’re used. But people call them that anyway.

For example, there was one terrifying case in this kingdom’s history. An ordinary boy—the son of a simple farmer, a fifteen-year-old village kid—awakened a special skill one day. The skill that was later named “Instant Death.”

They said that if a target was within a certain distance, he could just kill it—human, monster, animal, it didn’t matter. He killed indiscriminately. No one knew exactly when his skill awakened, but shortly after, there wasn’t a single living person left in his village. Then he went to neighboring villages, then to the nearest city.

The city vanished. They say even the rats in the sewers died—no living soul remained.

When they finally killed him, he was already level one hundred fifty. In just a couple of weeks, an ordinary farm boy became a monster, and by rough estimates he took hundreds of thousands of lives.

That’s why they suspected me.

It turns out Rem has the skill Appraisal. Yesterday, when she checked me, I was level ten. Today—level forty-two.

When I asked why she couldn’t identify my skill, she said her ability is low tier: she can only see a target’s rank and level, not their skills.

So when she saw I’d gone from level ten to forty-two in a single day, she suspected I’d awakened something similar… some kind of “dark” skill.

When I asked Rem how they even managed to kill that boy if his skill killed anything within range—since, as I understood it, it worked instantly—I first assumed they took him out from a distance, with a bow or magic.

But it turned out that wasn’t how it went. When he reached around level 150, the skill’s effective radius had grown so large he could kill every living thing within several hundred meters—almost a kilometer. That wasn’t a problem for him anymore.

And yet he was killed.

It was done by an A-rank adventurer.

When I asked how the adventurer got close enough to the boy—wouldn’t “Instant Death” have triggered?—Rem told me the adventurer simply walked up to him.

They say the boy went hysterical when he realized his ability wasn’t working. It was the first time he’d met someone his skill didn’t affect.

And here’s the point:

Even if a skill is unbelievably powerful, it’s still a magical skill, which means it follows the laws of magic.

If the opponent has sufficiently high resistance to magic, even the deadliest skill becomes useless.

That A-rank adventurer’s magic resistance was colossal.

So the boy’s skill simply didn’t work.

The A-rank adventurer’s magic defense was enormous.

Therefore the boy’s skill failed—it couldn’t penetrate the adventurer’s magic defense.

And even though the A-rank adventurer had been ordered to capture the boy alive,

he disobeyed and simply killed him.

He decided the boy’s skill was too dangerous

to leave him alive.

I do understand the logic.

If that boy could really kill everything alive within nearly a kilometer,

capturing him alive would have been almost impossible.

And guarding him afterward,

even if you ringed him with A-rank adventurers

to keep anyone from approaching within a kilometer,

would have been insanely difficult.

After Rem finished explaining, she even apologized to me.

It was so awkward.

Yes, I understand her fears—after what she told me,

her caution was entirely justified.

Good thing she listened.

Someone else might have just killed me

without even trying to figure anything out or asking a single question.

She even offered compensation—money or something else,

like a weapon.

But I refused.

I already owe Rem and Sherial—

they saved my life.

Accept compensation in a situation like this…

No, I couldn’t.

Looks like I really do owe them a debt I can’t repay.

After that, I decided not to go back into the Training Room.

Tonight I’ll just sleep out here—under the open sky.

Rem and Sherial also pitched their tent nearby,

a little farther from mine.

Damn… comparing my tent to theirs,

the difference is massive.

Even considering theirs is meant for two people,

compared to mine

it looks like an actual room.

All right. I crawled into my tent,

used the food bag as a pillow,

and pulled over myself the thin blanket

I’d bought at the general store.

Yeah… Tomorrow will be a good day.

After talking with Rem, I learned a lot

and decided to change my approach.

No more just locking myself in the Training Room

and grinding levels.

No.

Tomorrow I’ll have a new plan.

I’ll try living like a real adventurer—

at least a little.

--

POV: Rem

We waited a while, until Alisar fell asleep.

“I think he’s out cold,” Sherial said, looking toward his tent.

I nodded and activated my Golem Summon skill.

Glowing circles flared on the ground, and soon massive stone silhouettes stepped forth.

I stationed several golems around the camp—if anyone approaches, they’ll react immediately.

I summoned four more around our tent, one on each side.

And one—beside Alisar’s tent.

Yes, that golem will protect him if something attacks…

But its primary order is to protect us.

If Alisar does anything suspicious, the golem is to stop him.

All the golems I summoned are fourth-rank.

Each one could crush a level-forty-two adventurer with a single blow.

I sighed.

Yes, I get it—this guy is most likely just a simpleton—trusting, kind.

There’s something… almost innocent about him.

But caution is what keeps you alive.

“I hope I don’t find Alisar’s crushed body in the morning,” Sherial said, stifling a yawn.

“I hope so too,” I answered, brushing a strand of hair back.

Let him not do anything stupid. It would be unpleasant to start the day with blood.

I glanced at the dark figure of the golem beside Alisar’s tent.

It stood motionless, but ready to react in an instant.

Let the boy just sleep peacefully.

And let morning be quiet.