Chapter 154: A Side-Adventure (5)

"HAHAHAHA!" A maniacal laughter erupted.

It was Famin. He was laughing like a madman along with tears on the corner of his eyes.

It was hard to deduce the giant's expression but he seemed to be blankly staring at the maniac. However, he did nothing to stop him.

"Second chance!? No thanks! I'm ready to die." Famin spitted on the giant's fingers. He wasn't putting up an act. He had just been pushed to the absolute extreme. All his life, he had been scared to do anything. Now that he is destined to die, why should he continue to be scared?

[Why? Do you not want to live? Do you not have ambition? Are you just going to live an ambitionless life? Do you like being trampled on by those arrogant fools?]

Famin grinned widely. "Because I'm a fool who cannot distinguish between emotion and rationality. Rationally, I should take up your offer but there's an emotion deep buried within me that wants me to defy one single thing. And that is you."

The elderly man didn't answer this time.

"Kek! Kek! Kek!" 

Meanwhile, the red-skinned giant crackled in laughter. Holding Famin with its fingers, the giant lifted him up and widened its mouth. 

Then, he let him loose.

Famin's expression didn't change until the final moment when he suddenly roared.

"You think I'm going to give up without fighting!?" Balancing himself within air, he perfectly landed on one of the giant's frontal teeth, then without giving the latter to crush him, he jumped to catch his large lips.

The giant quickly took notice of the sudden development and instantly stretched his hand but Famin was very agile. With the support of the lips, he ran across his face and went to his nose. He couldn't hold on for much longer as he would soon be caught. Somehow standing on the giant's nose, he pulled up his last resort and punched on the giant's left eye. "Damn it! Take this!" 

"Gurr!!"

The giant roared and caught Famin angrily.

Famin had no expression on his face. He knew that now, there was no escape.

He looked at the angry giant bringing himself closer to his mouth. 

Just then, something unusual happened.

He fell.

On the giant.

Not on the giant's mouth.

His body tackled the giant. As his knee was pressed against the giant's face, the latter cried out in pain. The cry was mixed with confusion. He simply couldn't figure out what happened in the split second.

Like him, Famin was also confused.

[People usually show their true faces in the face of death. Most people, no matter how brave they are, cower when they are sure they are about to die. You, however… are very strange. You are cowardly. I laid a small trap for you which you didn't fall. Not because of your intelligence but because of your moral beliefs. This was quite surprising even for me.]

Famin had mixed feelings when he heard the elderly man. He came to his senses and saw the giant under him, his knees crushing his face. "How is…" 

He looked at the surroundings and realized that he hadn't become a giant but the giant wasn't a "giant" anymore. It had become a red-skinned ugly creature with a height smaller than him but was still muscular than him. Shocked, he was about to pull his leg and run.

[Are you sure you want to do this?]

Famin hesitated. He didn't need to ask what the elderly man meant. 

Will he take any action or run away like he always did?

Three seconds passed by in utter silence.

The red-skinned ugly creature was still under Famin's knee.

At this moment, Famin got up. 

[So this is your choice. I won't look down on you-]

*Pah*

The red-skinned ugly creature's face deformed when a foot stomped on it.

*Pah*

*Pah*

*Pah*

*Pah*

*Pah*

After several continuous stomps, the red-skinned creature fell unconscious.

Famin's eyes appeared weary and tired. He felt no emotions while ruthlessly crushing down the creature. It was unknown if he would have the same reaction in case the creature was a human but right now, he shed all of his morality and acted upon rationality.

***

On the other side, Rewen had just entered through the red route.

"Kekk!"

… And instantly spotted a monster soon after.

---

CP: 32

Health: 320/320

Evaluation: [Rank 1 ??? (Unknown Creature)]

---

[Boost]!

He transferred all his strength onto his legs and sprinted towards the monster.

Since the distance between wasn't much, the monster instantly spotted him.

"Gur!"

Noticing that the monster was preparing to launch on him as soon as he got near, he jumped on the side walls. Running on the sidewalls for a second, he caught the monster off guard.

-24

"Not enough!" He wanted to hit once more but he didn't have much time as the monster recovered from the strike.

*Swish*

It swung its arms. 

Luckily for Rewen, he had already stepped back. 'I'm slowly mastering the art of hit-and-run. Of course, this would only work on half-retarded monsters.' He saw the monster approaching him with a steady face.

Rewen didn't move from his spot. 'Fast. Fast. Fast.'

A ghastly look appeared on the monster's face as it looked at it's 'prey' not moving. 

Rewen took a step back.

The monster also took a step forward.

Rewen took another step back. 

The monster came closer.

Rewen couldn't take another step back. He was cornered. When he saw the monster raising his hand, he still wasn't finished with the casting.

*Boom*

The rocks beside his face shattered into several pieces.

He normally couldn't dodge a strike from the monster but upon analyzing the movements of the monster's hands, he quickly figured out the most likely place to strike and therefore, made preparations beforehand.

"It's good that you don't have any intellect." Rewen said before charging onto the monster's abdomen.

[Boost]!

River of Right Hand!

He combined both of them!

-288

The monster was thrown off and fell. It squirmed around, green blood came out from his mouth. It looked like it would die any second.

"Their defense is ridiculously low." Rewen commented before slowly walking on to the monster and giving the final blow.

-24

The monster was now dead.

He stared at a distance and saw some moving things. "Fuck hairs." He was not used to having bangs which restricted his vision so he usually carried a hairband around but fighting with a hairband was also troublesome for him. 'Again, why am I thinking about useless things?'

Brushing off his hair, he closely observed the moving beings at the distance. 

---

CP: 33

---

'One.'

---

CP: 35

---

'Two.'

---

CP: 36

---

'Three.'

'I'm fucked. Do I really need to use…'

At this moment, he heard a voice from the surroundings.

[You look like you have killed people before.]

Rewen was shocked by the sudden voice. After taking a second to calm down, he replied. "I did. Are you the owner of the [Heart Domain]?"

[I am him but also not him. Forget about me, your heart looks very troubled…]

"I have a question. Are you not seeing my brain rather than the heart?"

[I am seeing your heart.]

The elderly man gave a stern reply.

"Whatever you say." Rewen wasn't convinced with the mechanics of the [Heart Domain]. Regarding his thoughts, it has nothing to do with his heart. He thinks with his mind. According to him, if anything, it should be called [Mind Domain]. 'Well, maybe people want to name this figuratively.'

[You have quite the attitude, young man.]

Rewen smiled, shaking his head. "I'm quite well-mannered." Then, he sprinted off towards one of the creatures approaching him.

[Boost]!

It was the weakest among the three.

The creature's eyes lit up when it saw him running towards it.

Rewen had a neutral face. 

'So what if my strength isn't enough?'

Just when he was about a meter away from the creature, the creature jumped at him.

Seemingly having predicted this, he jumped back.

Giant Leap!

The creature collided with one of its kinds.

The creature receiving the tackle was stunned and couldn't hold itself back from tackling the other creature at its side.

All three of them fell.

-1

-7

-3

Rewen didn't let go of this chance and started hitting the three starting from the strongest.

-20

-21

-23

Not getting too greedy, he stepped back.

"If my strength isn't enough, I have to make up for it using other factors." Rewen panted heavily. After the sudden quick movements, he was bound to feel tired. Fortunately for him, his stamina recovers quickly.

"Again!"

…

..

A minute later.

-25

-21

-24

The three brainless creatures fell to their death.

Rewen fell on his butt. "Hah… Hah…" He was physically very tired. It would seem that it's illogical for him to get tired only after fighting for a minute but it makes complete sense if the intensity of the fight is to be considered. From the surface, it looked one-sided but it's only because he made it seem like that.

[What? Are you tired already?]