The mysterious man wore simple casual clothes. A blue shirt, short black pants. A scabbard on his back. But the unusual thing was his body.

Black, Short, and straight hair with sparse shining dots as ornament. The ends of his hair were also shimmering like milky way. It felt like his head was a tiny space.

His skin, however, was pale purple. Looking from afar one might mistake him as albino.

His eyes, although the sclera was normal, the iris and pupil were black as if they did not exist, yet you could still see bright tiny lights in there. One could say that his eyes were also a tiny constellation as well.

He was pretty tall. Around 180 cm or so it seemed, but he was not thin at all.

“A monster?..... or NPC?.... He looks like a human but his skin and hair……”

Hearing the threat, Zeke hesitated.

“And who are you? Are you one of that monster?”

Zeke called out while gazing at the mysterious man.

“Zeke, be careful. He looks dangerous.”

Adria whispered behind him as she readied her weapon.

“What if I say yes?”

The man noticed movement of Adria, he clenched his sword in readiness.

“Come on. This is not a right moment to play as pacifist. Out of my way and we’ll let you go.”

Zeke didn’t buy the man’s warning. He threatened back because he was advantaged in number while walking further in.

FWOOOM!

The man swiped his sword in the air making shock wave to ward off Zeke.

“It is I who decide to let you three go or not. Vile creatures!”

The man said in serious tone and looks.

Joz!

“Creatures? I guess I have no mercy for another monster then!”

Upon being called creature, Zeke assumed that the mysterious man didn’t know about humans therefore he must be another monster with humanoid shape.

Zeke sent a signal to Carl and Adria for support then charged in with his newfound strengths.

Schwing!

The two swordman clashed. They both seemed to be equal.

[You acknowledged the Defense of Mysterious man by attacking.]

[You received 5 experience!]

[You received additional 5 experience from the Newbie event!]

The device on Zeke’s arm resonated out.

“Hm!”

The mysterious man kicked Zeke in the stomach then punched him in the face making him got pushed back slightly.

“DIE YOU F*KING MONSTER!”

Furious from getting disrespect with the punch, Zeke lost his mind and calmness and rushed back in again.

“Zeke! NO!”

“DIE!”

Carl and Adria shouted at crazy Zeke but it was in vain.

Adria quickly shot an arrow at the mysterious man’s hand to cover Zeke and interrupted his attack.

The mysterious man saw Zeke rushed toward with craziness and heard the insult, he suddenly became wrathful.

Although filled with hatred, the man was resolute. He raised his sword and swung it down at Zeke with speed.

Zeke, who was blinded by rage, was unable to counter the attack in time. He reacted by putting his sword up to cover but the strength was overwhelmed. His attack broke the arrow of Adria along with Zeke’s sword.

Clang!

Zeke’s sword was broken to two pieces.

The mysterious man quickly spun in circular motion and Slashed Zeke again.

[You received 39 damage from Critical hit of Spinning Slash!!!]

[Your HP decreased to 38!!]

“KHAAAAK!!”

The attack damaged from Zeke’s left shoulder to his right waist. He was covered with a lot of blood and fainted.

“ZEKE!!!”

Carl quickly rushed in to retrieve Zeke while Adria was ready to cover him even though she was getting nervous from witnessing the power of that man.

“You killed the innocents! IT IS YOU, the monster!”

The man calmly said as he raising his sword in attempt to finish Zeke off. His eyes were full of sorrow.

“PLEASE! SPARE HIM! I’LL GIVE YOU ANYTHING!!!”

Carl shouted to buy some time, making the man paused and looked at him.

“Spare? You're talking about mercy, yet this thing was trying to kill that innocent lady just now.”

The man said in calm tone, yet his intense stare was very overwhelmed enough to make Carl and Adria fear.

“I don’t know what has he done to you! But please! Have mercy! He’s still young!”

Carl finally reached Zeke’s body. He quickly put himself between the sword and Zeke’s body and begged him.

The man still pointing his sword but he seemed to be hesitant.

“……”

The man turned around to the Slime Queen and let her judging Zeke’s fate.

“Guess I have no choice….”

Adria was observing from afar. If the man decided to kill Zeke, she’ll have to use her last resort.

“He killed my 9 slimes. He deserve die.”

The Queen stood up and slowly walked toward them.

Upon hearing the Queen’s words Carl was frightened. Adria gripped the string stronger and was about to cast her last resort.

“But die can’t bring back the dead. Maka is not die now. I don’t want to see you three anymore!”

The Queen held the fainted little slime tightly then turned around and walked away from the battlefield.

“Th-Thank you! We will not bother you ever again! I swear!”

Carl saw the Queen walked away and the mysterious man pulled back his sword, he breathed a sigh of relief then started to give Zeke a first aid.

“Even in her sorrow she still knows mercy! What creatures are you to be this ruthless?”

The mysterious man sheathed his sword then sneered as he walked the same way the Slime Queen took.

Adria saw the man sheathed and walked away, she quickly rushed to Carl and Zeke to help.

….

“miss…adria?”

Zeke woke up on a bed inside their camp. He saw Adria was sleeping beside his bed.

“Zeke!”

Adria woke up from the call then immediately hugged Zeke with joy.

“Ouch!”

“oops.”

The wounds caused him to shout in pain. Adria quickly backed off.

“You’re up? Thank god it wasn’t serious. I’ll make you some rice soup. Hold up.”

Carl came back from picking herbs and wild foods.

 

“What happened after that? Did you guys chase him away?”

Zeke recalled what happened yesterday, so he asked curiously.

…..

“I’m sorry. I was useless…”

Adria and Carl looked at each other and were silent for a while then Carl spoke up with disappointment in his face.

“No…..If it wasn’t you I would have died earlier.”

“And you even rushed in to save him!”

Zeke and Adria tried to cheer Carl up. Hearing Carl rushed in to save him, Zeke assumed that Carl won the battle.

….

“Well, at least we still completed the event right?”

Seeing nobody say anything for a while, Zeke opened up the log to check what had happened.

“We’ll deal with it later once we get stronger! If we rushed in again now, that man will just interfere us again for sure.”

“Zeke… I think we shouldn’t bother it anymore. Just let it be”

Adria tried to convince.

“Why? If we let that thing survive it’s gonna kill more people again.”

Zeke said with confused face.

“Maybe that blood wasn’t human, right? Let’s leave it alone! Besides, it seems to not care about humans anymore.”

Adria was persistent. She didn’t want any of them to get into dangerous situations anymore especially Zeke. She just wanted to gradually get strong, not skipping so many steps like they did with the Queen.

“Yeah…..you’re probably right…. I’m sorry. I forgot that I dragged you guys into this and make you faced so much difficulties.”

Zeke finally listened to Adria.

 

“Come on. I know you’re kind at heart. I’m no longer feel bad anymore. Here! Eat up! I’ll go find some more herbs to make you potions. You’ll be fine in no time!”

Carl walked up with a bowl of rice soup in his hand then comforted Zeke.

“Thank you…look! A boss weapon!!”

Zeke was enjoying his food while browsing the log until he found that the rewards were already sent into his inventory.

“Slime Queen Hammer?”

Carl came closer and saw the boss weapon in Zeke’s inventory.

“What about yours?”

“I’ve got Slime Queen Bow!”

“I got Slime Queen Bag?”

Zeke was curious if everyone got the same weapon or not. It turned out the boss weapons from special event were adjusted according to the starter weapons.

………

“Why you help me? Human?”

The Slime Queen saw the mysterious man followed behind making her felt uncomfortable.

“Human? What’s that?”

The man increased his paces to her side.

…..

Silence fell for a long time as they kept going. The Slime Queen did not answer anything as she moved quietly and uncomfortably.

“Many days ago I met one of your kind.”

“He came up to me curiously and brought his friends to play with me. I thought you guys are harmless creatures”

Seeing the Slime Queen kept silent for a long time, the man felt guilty for making her uncomfortable.

“Then yesterday I thought it was strange that no one shows up I tried looking around and……”

“I am sorry for your lost. I didn’t expect those creatures would do that so I didn’t watch over them.”

The man continued as he expressed his sincerity.

“At least he’s safe now right? What about you? Your wounds seems to be-”

The mysterious man was busy with talking he didn’t notice that the Slime Queen was fainted behind.

“Even about to faint you’re still care about him huh?”

The mysterious man quickly held her up. He noticed that the Slime Queen put Maka into her body before getting fainted.