Kotori watched Yooma leap forward and try to land a hit on the turtlelike Shu with his club. unlike last time where Yooma’s attack left Shu damaged and near broke. His club struck Shu’s armor and bounced off.
Dirt Spirit (Shu)
Race: [Greater Spirit] Age: 2
HP: 91 (+66)
Mana: 17
Agility: 78 (+66)
Strength: 85 (+66)
Defense: 93 (+66)
Skills: [Rock Bullet]
Traits: [Earth Spirit] [Stone Skin](New!) [Form Manifestation](Locked)
Yooma looked shocked
“It seems you’ve all grown stronger”
“Indeed,” Kotori said as Shu shrugged off the blow. The roomed was extremely cramped as a result of Shu’s and Umi’s size.
Kotori gestured and Shu jumped backed smashing a large hole in the Earl's house and falling into the garden.
Kotori, Umi, and Amelie followed along jumping out of the house as well. Kotori felt her karma go down as a result of the property destruction and realized that the earl was likely not an enemy towards her.
“Sorry” She said looking apologetically at the Earl whose face was not pale after this sequence of events. She once again checked Yooma’s stats
Yooma
Race: [Human] Age: 46
HP: 124
Mana: 50
Agility: 86
Strength: 75
Defense: 42
Karma: [N/A]
Skills: [Sword Smith]
Traits: [Pawn]
[Alright same as before] She thought. They were mush stronger now and her mana pool had grown. Before then they could barely keep up but now, they were likely an even fight if not able to completely overpower Yooma.
Yooma leaped out of the hole to trail after them in his hands two silvery katanas that shimmered.
“This doesn’t have to end this way he said as he entered a readied stance.”
Yooma gave off the air of a trained warrior compared to when that fought in the sewer Kotori could tell he was much more serious than before.
He didn’t move. His blades were steady not trembling.
The area around the earl’s house was in a commotion as the nobles who were out on walks quickly left the area.
Yooma was silent amidst this.
“Do you know what it means to be a pawn of the king?” Yooma asked calmly
Kotori gave a confused looked
He continued
“We are hand-selected warriors “Above me is the queen, the Bishops, the Rooks, and the knights.”
“But I am the leader of the Pawns,” he said
[Well, he’s just a pawn] Kotori mused
[I wonder what the [pawn] trait does]
“Don’t give me that look” Yooma said
“Even if you defeat me, you will have the other warriors hunting you down,” he said
“A criminal as dangerous as you would not be given mercy”
Kotori was slightly intimidated but felt as though she and her party would be able to work it out.
“However…” he continued
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. You still have to defeat me first” He finished
He slashed toward them
Kotori immediately didn’t dodge, but somehow, she felt something was off and took a step back.
Something whipped past her face. If it weren’t for her small step back her head would’ve been cleaved in half.
She looked at Yooma and saw his blade elongated. They were slowly slivering back to their original form.
He smirked, “the nice part about magical blades, is that I make whatever I want.”
Amelie held Kotori back.
“I will take this,” She said her face giving a determined look
She walked forward with her mother’s saber in her hand.
“Shishou, will you not let us go”
Yooma's expression soften
“Unfortunately, my loyalties were defined long before you were born”
Race: [Half Wood Elf] Age: 18
HP: 96 (+66!)
Mana: 0
Agility: 90 (+66!)
Strength: 91 (+66!)
Defense: 86 (+66!)
Skills: [Ninjistu]
Traits: [Wood Elf's Blessing]
Amelie jumped towards him. Her kick against the ground leaving a cloud of dirt. Smashing gouging the perfectly manicured lawn of the Earls garden
Yooma defended, due to the nature of his blade the mana that made them were quickly broken.
The swords broke and he instantly materialized a no-dachi sword in his hand.
He defends his blade going vertical. Shu shot a [Rock Bullet] towards Yooma but he quickly cut down the rock with the dachi.
“No” Amelie said “Just me”
Shu nodded understanding her.
Kotori began to see people approaching. It seemed the city guard was coming to investigate the commotion. They had been fighting for less than 10 minutes but the guards were already showing up. It was just the difference between being rich and poor it seemed.
The district guard was weak. They were well equipped, but ultimately, they were normal humans who had not activated skills yet.
Kotori let Shu and Umi deal with them. She gave explicit orders to not kill them since she was not willing to let her karma drop too low. Shu lowered the power of his [Rock Bullet] and Umi fought to incapacitate them.
[Hmm] Kotori thought
She was getting an idea. It had been a while since she feasted on humans and although she had never really tried to eat something that was still alive.
Bodies would leak mana once they died since the soul’s physicals connection to the world is cut. That was how [Hunter] worked it would simply suck up existing mana. This is why Kotori thought the skill was weirdly named.
She wanted to try eating something that was alive. She walked over to one of the unconscious guards.
[Just a little taste right?]
She slowly activated [Hunter] and felt around the guard's mana. There was a thin cloudy layer surrounding a hard wall.
[Hmm] Kotori thought
While she could eat the thin layer it was more difficult to try and break past the mana layer
[is that the soul?]
The thin layer tasted like the residual mana that monsters would leave what she was going to tentatively call the “soul” which was much more difficult to try and break. It almost felt like trying to bite in a walnut.
“Urgh!” The soldier made a pained expression
That when Kotori realized if she ate the “soul” she would probably kill the man
She deactivated [Hunter]
“Sorry!” She said giving an apologetic bow to the man who was unconscious.
Kotori gestured and Shu jumped backed smashing a large hole in the Earl's house and falling into the garden.
Why run? She should have killed Giorgio right there.
Some quick edits:
“Sorry” She said looking -> (needs a paragraph break before it)
the Earl whose face was not pale after this -> now pale(?)
Yooma leaped out of the hole to trail after them in his hands two silvery katanas that shimmered. -> them, in
“This doesn’t have to end this way he said as he entered a readied stance.” -> way," he said -> stance.
That when Kotori realized if she ate the “soul” she -> That was when
They Must All Die slowly! And Eat their Souls! Your a Grow Girl! And I hope Demon Lord!
Thank you for the chapter.<3
Why didn't they expain that Giorgio was the person they were smuggling for? He should at least hear them out, unless he already knew that.
plot reasons prevent me from telling you more, but yes. Yooma knows.
@Newfypuppie You also told about how the kingdom needed adventurers, this is probably a valid recruitment method, as long as it can’t be proven that the kingdom is luring them in (or if they made doing so legal). Is he one of the strongest people in the kingdom as a pawn of the king or is it some military rank ? Also with your current growth speed (in combat power) if they can already fight one of the strongest people in the kingdom, won’t you get problems with the power levels (or is he just the head representative of the king in that city (head of the pawns) and not one of the strongest people in the kingdom)?
@manno I personally think that considering you said that there is an adventurer that can fight 2 dragons at once (not lizards or dragonkin, lesser dragons can be called dragons though) and that Yooma would get absolutely annihilated fighting a dragon that he isn’t the strongest by far. To monopolise the dungeons, did they exile the adventurers or just make it more difficult until they left? If an armed dragon slayer wants to enter a dungeon it is hard to say no:)
@manno Humans are relatively weak in the context of this world. This is a fantasy setting, of course, there are much, much, much stronger things in this world. Yooma is one of the stronger warriors in the kingdom but that is relative, in a 1v1 he probably beats most people and probably beats Kotori(Especially considering his skill and technique). In a 1v3 or 4, he would have trouble no? That's why human adventurers make parties because the average human is weak especially against dungeon bosses like Nero. Slight spoiler but despite Yooma's actions in the sewers he was taking the fight quite seriously. The ending of this novel is actually already decided I'm still working out the middle-late parts, so don't worry about power curves :D.
@manno For how the kingdom monopolized adventurers that is something that will be explained a little later once this arc gets going. It's going to be quite long and actually will play a role in this arc.
@Newfypuppie If the ending is already decided, how long will this story be? Most other stories I read here and elsewhere don’t really have an ending and since a lot of them are longer than this story I was wondering if you were going to have to get creative with power levels later in the story.
@manno So uhh, about the length I am writing this assuming I still have another 700 or so chapter + 100 or so side story + epilogue chapters. Despite much of the novel so far being fighting+ growing it WILL slow down. As the plot starts to develop more and I spend time developing characters.
I hate to once again use the trope of "I can't tell you or else I spoil the story" but I did spend quite a bit of time after the first 20 chapters fleshing out where I wanted to go with the story. This arc we're going through right now is probably something that Kotori would laugh at in the later stages of the story.
Some of the web novels that really inspire me to write and might help you contextualize power levels would be, "Apotheosis of the demon", "Tensei slime", "Kumo desu ka", "Maou Machizukuri", and "Arifureta". It might be a little rough around the edges since I am not a person who is super structured with my writing(I'm more of a "here are plot points" and write towards them) but I do have a plan regarding where Kotori will end up.
@Newfypuppie I’ve actually read all but Maou Machizukuri already.
It as many Readers Figured out was a Scam to enslave adventurers to the kingdom. Yooma is a lying Scumbag who soul must be destroyed! To have his Soul Devoured and Digested for all time Slowly Screaming in agony in Kotori stomach begging for none existence but eternally denied ! (Not that I dislike Yooma or anything!) Soul eat soul eat Soul eat soul eat Soul eat soul eat Soul eat soul eat Soul eat soul eat!