As the venomous oxin seeped into his bloodstream, a chilling numbness spread from the point of impact, rendering his limbs immobile in its icy grip.

  “Hahahaha!” Ziddian’s ughter boomed as he spped his hand against his fa sheer delight. “After all that bravado you showed earlier, is this truly the best you have to offer? Pathetic!”

  Daisuke’s form remaiill, his head lowered, his visage hiddeh the veil of his bangs. With a fident stride, the man approached, a smirk pying on his lips as he uhed a short sword from his waist.

  Like tless others before, Daisuke had now fallen from favor, and Ziddian was known to dispose of his pythings ohey no longer eained him. “ you feel it?” he mused, a hint of sadistic pleasure in his voice. “The fmes raging through your veins? That’s the poising your body, corroding your nerves, and annihiting your chakra pathways.”

  “…Is that right?” murmured Daisuke.

  Ziddian’s eyes widened in stunned disbelief.

  DING!

  [A toxic substance has beeed within your body. Αφιν?τη’s Blessing has ralized the threat aored your health.]

  Before the rogue could move an inch, Daisuke swiftly retrieved the needle from his shoulder and stabbed it into the side of the bastard’s neck. Swallowing down a curse, Ziddiareated in a panic, frantically rummaging through his garments for a special antidote.

  Time was of the essence; Siren’s Kiss was the deadliest poison he had ever brewed, so potent that he had yet to fully develop immunity to its effects. Devoting his entire focus to the antidote, Ziddian tilted his head back, ready to down the bright green liquid in one gulp. But before he could even make a move, the gss vial vanished from his fiips in a blur of speed, leaving him empty-handed.

  The vilin’s forehead creased darkly, bloodshot eyes abze with fury as he turned his wrathful gaze towards the silver-haired nuisance. Meanwhile, Daisuke had already shattered the vial taining the antidote onto the Lipanthyer’s Fang, allowing the thick liquid to coat the lower end of the bde.

  Before Ziddian could unleash a torrent e, Daisuke seized the back of the bastard’s ne a vice-like grip and yanked him closer, driving the on into the left side of his chest.

  “Guagh,” Ziddian choked, spitting up a mouthful of blood.

  With deliberate slowness, Daisuke pressed the bde a few inches deeper, drawing himself o whisper into the man’s ear. “Let’s py a game,” he muttered with a devilish smirk hidden behind his mask. “Your beloved poison is busy liquefying your insides. On the lower half of this bde lies the serum that could save you.

  But here’s the catch: I’ll keep pushing this dagger in slowly. Your task is to resist the strength of my arm and trol the pace at which the bde enters your body. Too slow, and the poison might finish you off. But if you’re too hasty and careless, the bde could pierce your heart. And in the midst of that delicate bang act, you’ll have to endure excruciating pain.

  Good luck.”

  “…Y-You sick bastard!” Ziddian spat furiously, his voice trembling even as crimson red blood began to ooze from every orifice.

  Daisuke snickered, his golden eyes wide and filled with a psychopathic glint. “Funny you should mention that,” he mused. “Weren’t you just lecturing me about g creativity in my revenge? Don’t be a hypocrite now—or maybe you’ve just never sidered being on the receiving end of such a fate?”

  Ziddian menagly bared his blood-coated teeth and hissed, “YOU!”

  “Maybe it would’ve been in your best io i in some prote for yourselves as well,” Daisuke mocked casually.

  At the sting of those acidic words, Ziddian’s eyes rolled bad he crumpled to the ground. His body vulsed untrolbly as he foamed at the mouth, experieng the very fate he had mercilessly inflicted upon his subordinate.

  “Well, there goes our little game,” Daisuke remarked with stoic ess. “Seems your poison truly lived up to its reputation. What a shame.”

  DING!

  [Ziddian has beeed!]

  [Mana crystal has been acquired.]

  [Antidote x8 has been acquired.]

  [Shuriken x12 has been acquired.]

  [Smokes Bomb x4 has been acquired.]

  [Poison Bomb x3 has been acquired.]

  [105 gold has been acquired.]

  “BASTARD!!”

  With a grating roar, Brutus overturhe table before him, sending food and wooden tableware crashing to the ground in a chaotic frenzy. With a deep grunt, the beast of a man approached the ihat had defeated his rade using cheap tricks, his t stature casting an eerie shadow.

  “That’s two down and two left to go,” Daisuke said unflingly, gring at the ogre who had dared to hurt Zephyr.

  Brutus wasted no time in reag for his massive two-handed axe, the on gleaming menagly in the dim light of the chamber. With a powerful swing, he brought the axe down in a thunderous arc, aiming to cleave the feeble human in two. But Daisuke was quicker, dodging the attack with lightning-fast reflexes as the grouh them cracked and splintered into jagged lines.

  In a bid to gain the upper hand, Daisuke summoned golden s that coiled around Brutus’s massive form, attempting to immobilize the giant. Then he immediately went in for the tendons at the back of the ogre’s legs, a teique that was fual in taking down loftier oppos.

  But Brutus wasn’t your average muscle for brains. Anticipating the attack, he abandoned his on and leaped skyward, shattering the s with a casual flex of his immerength, as if they were woven from straw. The ground quaked when he nded, and time slowed to a crawl, rocks and debris suspended in the air, both warriring at each other through the chaos.

  Another roar erupted from the ogre’s jaws as he ced his fingers and brought his arm crashing down like a titan’s hammer. Light on his feet, Daisuke mao narrowly escape the earth-shattering impact. But he wasn’t given a moment of reprieve.

  From the fractured ground, Brutus seized loose rocks and began hurling them with uing fury. But like a shadow dang through chaos, Daisuke evaded each projectile with fluid grace, closing in with the Lipanthyer’s Fang. Yet, despite an impressive flurry of lightning-fast sshes, the bde failed to pee deeply enough to incapacitate the hulking ogre.

  “It’s useless,” Brutus gloated with a crude grin. “Your puny attacks won’t be able to pierce my skin.”

  Without a word, Daisuke sharpened his focus, and with the Eye of Verity, was able to dis a thin yer of mana cloaking the man’s body. It was likely a type of physical enha skill ong brawny batants, and it became evident that Daisuke’s basic onry and gear wouldn’t be able to breach such a formidable defense.

  But wait, he pondered, even as the vicious giant attempted to ensnare him in an iron grip, why did he brother to evade if his ankles are invulnerable to physical attacks?

  To find his answer, Daisuke lunged once more for the tendons, his aura swirling with a potent cocktail of hatred and vengeance. But Brutus, once again anticipating the move, sucked in a deep breath, his belly swelling ominously. When he exhaled, a torrent of fire spilled forth from his mouth.

  Daisuke looked on in stunned silehe pping fmes dyeing his body a brilliant e and gold. Brutus was a warrior-type with the IQ of Ro, so how was he able to wield this kind of magic?

  Brushing the thought aside, Daisuke darted to the left, the searing fmes hot on his heels. As he circled around, the inferno trailed after him, enclosing both him and the giant in a crag wall of fire. Brutus grinned, finally ering his nimble prey. But Daisuke didn’t falter; he couldn’t, not in the face of such peril. His golden eyes bzed as he scrutihe brute’s stats.

  In addition to his unimpressive supply of mana that had almost bottomed out from the tinuous use of his physical reinfort skill, Brutus possessed only a basic fire-type spell named Spark. And if Daisuke had to guess, such a low-level spell didn’t pack that much firepower, which left only one pusible expnation.

  Daisuke’s frown deepened as the Eye of Verity shifted to another spectrum of vision. Simir to X-ray, he dised shapes and outlihrough various shades and iies of blue. What caught his attention ouch made of sturdy monster hide cealed within Brutus’s stomach, likely taining highly fmmable oil.

  This oil would be expelled by trag his stomach, thus applying pressure to the pouch. A tube then fuhe oil up into his mouth. Upon activating the Spark skill, he would ighe oil spewed from his mouth, mimig a high-tiered fire spell.

  It was an impressive piece of engineering to pensate for a agical aptitude—and a clever tactic that likely caught many of the man’s adversaries off guard, but Daisuke had absolutely no iion of falling into that unfortuegory.

  As Brutus retrieved his double-headed axe and closed in with deadly purpose, Daisuke took a breath and braced himself for the iable csh. His body slowly leaned forward in battle readiness, his focus intensifying as his stats systematically pooled into his Agility and Strength.

  With calm determination, he allowed his power te and envelop him, unveiling the prowess of his newly acquired skill—Sixth Sense. When his golden eyes fshed open, he honed in on the ogre’s ot, ying the groundwork for his move.

  Sing out the Lipanthyer’s Fang for the Crafted Bamboo Spear, he patiently waited for the opportune moment. Brutus had bee noticeably more cautious as he approached, his defensive posture indig a heightened awareness of danger.

  Suddenly, the window of opportunity appeared.

  With the memory of the man’s brutal treatment of Zephyr fueling his resolve, Daisuke unched himself forward like a bolt from a ballista. Brutus halted, his biceps bulging as he swung his axe in a tight arc. His eyes widened in dread when his target accelerated even further, moving at a speed far beyond what his eyes could perceive.

  Before the axe could plete its crest trajectory, Daisuke smoothly ducked beh the bde with a grace that belied his speed. In a swift and precise motion, he drove the bamboo on deep into the bastard’s stomach, pletely catg him off guard.

  “Y-You slimy bastard!” Brutus spat furiously.

  Daisuke’s features torted into a dark scowl. “That physical reinfort skill is definitely impressive, but you don’t have enough mana to sustain it for long.”

  Driven by a maelstrom e, fear, and a myriad of other emotions, Brutus dropped his axe and reached in with his steely fingers, i on ripping the i fly apart with his bare hands.

  Daisuke’s gre dripped with disdain and mockery as he crammed a Frial Seed into the hollow bamboo spear. The glowing e stone followed the straight, fibrous path until it slipped into the pouch within the man’s stomad made tact with the oil.

  Brutus’s eyes bulged with a sudden realization of his impending doom. Desperate and sensing his demise, his colossal arms lunged forward, attempting to restrain his adversary and drag him along into oblivion.

  Daisuke swiftly retreated, vaulting over the barrig wall of fire and defehrowing his body over Petu. The ogre’s bellow nation echoed through the chamber moments before a violent bst obliterated him, scattering every fiber of his being in all dires—a fitting end for a ruthless vilin.

  DING!

  [Brutus has beeed!]

  [Mighty Axe has been acquired.]

  [Medium HP Recovery Potion x3 has been acquired.]

  [Reinfort Tablet has been acquired.]

  [Mana crystal has been acquired.]

  [Steel Ingot x2 has been acquired.]

  [Silver Ingot x3 has been acquired.]

  [84 gold has been acquired.]

  “Are you okay?” asked Daisuke as he helped Petu to her feet.

  “…I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that,” she murmured slowly.

  Daisuke turned, casting her a sidelong gnce. “You mean the senseless violence?”

  “It’s not the violeself,” she crified. “It’s… the look on your face during those moments. A boy ye shouldn’t have to carry such a burden.”

  Daisuke took a moment to absorb the warmth of her words before allowing them to slip away. “Let’s keep moving.”