-Vol 6: Dusk of An Era-

-Doom Fest(3)-

“You mean, it’s trying to control him? Are you serious, I don’t know the exact number, but Clut has no less than 500 points of WIL, how can he be controlled this easily?” Adam brought a valid point. Once someone’s WIL touched upon the boundary of 100, the WIL slowly transforms into Intent, which was a higher version of WIL. And slowly after that, the Intent manifests into a physical form, which called Intent Manifestation.

Anyway, the point is, mind control was nearly impossible when one’s WIL reaches that kind of number, so Adam’s skepticism was justified.

“I am not lying. If you have money, you can buy the Clarity Scroll from System Storage and see for yourself as well.” Offered the girl, as she stared at Clut, who stood like a statue coldly.

“Alright,” Adam listened to her advice and bought a Clarity scroll for 50 gold coins, pretty expensive for a one-time use scroll, but he needed it. He lightly the tore the top right corner of the scroll, making it light before vanishing into his two eyes. As it did so, Adam’s vision changed as he started to see everything in better detail. He even started to see the mental state of living beings around him.

When he fixed his eyes on Clut, all he could see was a clump of dark mist surrounding a miniature version of Clut, floating above the head of the real one who stood like a statue. Upon further inspection, he observed a miniature picture of what could be a replica of the ball of muscle, forcing its way into his head.

The truth was now before him, it’s irrefutable. That small replica was swirling so fast that it was slowly but surely digging its way through the barrier of WIL surrounding Clut’s head(psyche). In a nutshell, his friend would be a puppet of this muscle ball if he couldn’t save him before that ball digs into his head.

“Can you assist me?” he looked at the girl and asked nicely. After all, when you ask for help, asking nicely was the courtesy, besides this girl had shown him enough courtesy, though she had a cold face plastered throughout.

The girl nodded her head as a long crossbow materialized in her hand, accompanied by a swirling dark mist. Adam raised one of his brows, looking at her weapon, and thought, ‘she seems to be a long-range focussed hunter, it’s my first time seeing a real long-ranged hunter with a system.’

Adam had seen many things, but a unidirectional focused hunter who possessed a system was first for him. Since the system provided them to allot their gained attribute points freely, most of the hunters like him would try to maintain a balance between all stats while focussing extensively on PHY, INT, and WIS.

“My arrow will try to dig a spot, you should attack that exact point where my arrow will hit, okay?” the girl instructed before taking aim. The crossbow she held glowed, emitting cold blue light. The arrow region that was empty earlier, suddenly had a pale blue colored arrow knocked automatically. She closed one of her eyes as if to concentrate. A few seconds later, she said, “there” and let loose her arrow.

The arrow instantly reached the barrier and started to grind against it as it rotated at a very high speed. A few seconds later, a crack could be seen on the previous impervious barrier. This crack was even bigger than the one Adam made.

Adam aimed his pike into that exact crack hole made by the girl, using all the power in his arms, he thrust it. With a dull noise, the crack made from the impact of the arrow increased a lot, but it didn’t break the barrier. Just as Adam pulled back, a small blue arrow passed by him and penetrated that hole he had stretched on the barrier. This arrow was a little different though, it didn’t rotate at high speeds like the previous one, rather, it expanded until a dull explosion occurred, increasing the crack even more.

Getting his cue, Adam used one of his many skills to slam the pike on the barrier again. This time, with another dull explosion, the barrier was broken into tiny pieces like shards of glasses. As it happened, the statute like the body of Clut jerked and threw back towards him while coughing blood and bleeding from his nose. Adam grabbed Clut’s body and jumped back, then running as far from the grotesque ball as possible.

The girl had long since disappeared after heling him, and Adam had no mood to search for her. He was more than worried about Clut, who, despite pulled away from that thing, was still in a trance. Adam was getting worried, he slapped thrice but still got no result.

“Clut, bastard. Wake up dammit!!” he continued to call for him, going as far as MP potion, which had a passive effect of calming one’s mind but to no avail.

“Isn't he went ahead and engaged that thing on his own?” a condescending voice came behind Adam, as a middle-aged man in his late thirties revealed himself, dressed in a karate gi. He had his long black hair combed to sleek back, and even wore a band to keep them in the place. On his eyes, he wore a pair of glasses, round but sturdy. The man was looking at both Clut and Adam as if he was looking at a pair of bugs.

“What of it?” not lining his tone and the look on his eyes, Adam narrowed his eyes at the man answering rudely.

“Hmph, not knowing the limit of his strength and underestimating your opponent… serves him right. Get away from here, you two, if you don’t want to die miserable deaths, like the bugs you are.” Saying so, he snorted once again, and disregarding the hate-filled eyes of Adam, he went away towards the place where they both were just now.

“What do you say? Bastard… I will fucking kill you if you look at me like that again.” Adam lost his cool. He was too a powerful hunter and someone with a system, how can he take it, being looked down like that? He also has his pride, after all.

Boom!!!

Suddenly a fist made of puer air current landed on his abdomen, throwing him several steps back. It took Adam a few more seconds to realize what even happened with him. Then he started to cough violently, feeling his stomach churning in pain. He looked at the karate-gi man, who was still walking calmly away from him. A voice floated on his ear as he continued to stare at the man in both fear and wonder, “this mission refrained us from killing each other, but, that didn’t mean we can’t beat the shit out of you and land you in a near-death situation if you step out of line, get it?”

Adam, who was about to use his pike to mount a follow-up attack, stopped himself as he continued to stare at the man, fear could be seen all over his face. Clenching his fist right enough to draw blood, he sighed, exhaling all the anger in his system and returned to Clut’s side.