Ch 1-8

The colors of crimson dyed my sight as three of them ejected lasers outta their hands. Right before the beam vaporized me, an invisible force stopped it on its tracks, followed by the System message.

[Godslayer activated!]

As the text box appeared in my mind, the lasers were gone.

[Retribution nullified, entering normal battle.]

If the Godslayer was active at this point—I might be confronting a god-like entity. The thrill of killing a god as a mere mortal was indeed juicy, but before the fight, I wasn't sure if I could accomplish it.

The three black figures stood still as I entered battle mode. They looked menacing and strong; I probably didn't stand a chance at first glance, but don't think I'd give up my precious life for this.

Even if they're only half my height, they radiated such powerful presence, I froze for a moment here.

Wait, there were some stats I could analyze right away.

[Death Eater]

Level 99

HP: ???/???

MP : ???/???

All stats: 255

Skills :

All attacks will always bring instant death.

...

...should I just use the escape skill? Nah, it's a trap. They definitely want me to escape.

Wait...I noticed something new in the interface called [Turn Order]. How was it not present earlier? Or maybe I wasn't paying that much attention—or the features weren't all unlocked since that was still on Tutorial phase.

In that case—shouldn't the System explain?

No, I don't like being spoon-fed either.

Three black shadows had the icons like the ghosts at P*cman. Located at the leftmost corner, marked by numbers [1, 2, 3] and so forth. While lagging far back, was a chibi-fied illustration of my face; a black-haired man with glasses. The number was 4; often synonymous with death.

Talk about a bad omen, but it's not necessarily my own.

When I queried with the System, she explained--since the battle wait mode was set to [Wait] as default, instead of [Active], they just stood still. If this was set to [Active], I might be dead right away.

Continuing the things she felt explaining: the turn order was determined by each respective AGI. The one with the highest AGI would always get to act first, no matter if it's the enemy or ally.

With this mechanic, you couldn't queue-cast all the skill on your party members unless you're all faster than all the monsters.

Of course, the first thing I asked after that was about those enemies. Why was I attacked right away? What was retribution? What was Godslayer really?

This time, however, the loli System just said 'good luck'.

In their case, since their stats were all the same, the order was supposed to be random.

Fleeing was indeed, a trap.

Since my AGI was so low, I would be defeated by their attack before I could even proceed with my escape skill; I normally couldn't even get to my turn at all.

As of currently, my menu wasn't even present.

...but in this case, it should be their own turn. Why would they just stand there like an idiot at the beginning of the battle? Hmm...probably a game convenience? Like a preparation time to plan ahead since I'm a player?

Let's just let them pass their turn first. The dialog boxes for my Actions hadn't shown up since my turn wasn't there yet. You might think the [Wait] mode was useless but to me, who prefer to take my time during crucial fights—it's still a godsend.

It's kinda ironic I'm a [Godslayer] though.

I remember the Actions which would end my turn. First thing was [Attack] in which I got to move towards the enemy and making physical contact, including a harmless finger-poking. The damage was roughly the same no matter how hard I punched, swung the weapon or even poked it with my fingers. Only numerical values matter.

The thing was, I got to return to my previous, approximate location before it finally ended.

The second thing was [Defend], by standing in place and raising my fists to block the attack. I didn't need to put up my guard the entire time, the moment a Shield icon was beside my status, it's okay to relax my guard.

Defending was useless in this case.

The third one was [Skills]. According to System, you could simply imagine the move you'd like to execute and unleash your hidden powers, but in my case, nothing particularly happened, so...

The fourth thing was [Escape Attempt] by walking towards the edge of the battlefield. If the confirmation said [Success] you would be taken outside the battle, but if it failed...

Well, it was too risky either way. Fleeing was not an option, but it's not I got any means to fight them head-on.

Hmm...I think I got an idea.

There were three enemies up front, labeled [Death Eater A, B, and C] from left to right. Even their turn order was [A, B, C] from first to last.

I moved towards the back of [Death Eater B] and set the wait mode to [Active]. Later on, I noticed, the [Wait] was actually set to default at the beginning of the battle, and there's a feature to [Start Battle] if your enemy actually got the first turn, aside from changing it to [Active].

"Damn it."

I let out a swear since my previous plan failed. Instead of being baited towards my current position and attacking [Death Eater B], [Death Eater A] stupidly moved towards my starting position at the other side and struck thin air. Compared to the slimes that moved so fast when I first arrived, their speed was akin to an adult walking a bit fast than usual.

I began to call bullshit that the first slime fight was a plot device.

Anyway, the other two also behaved the same way.

Their attacks consist of raising their arm and chopped at a pretty slow speed.

I kinda made them skip animations by toggling the menu option since their walking speed was so slow. Soon enough, it was my own turn.

Hmm...I think I got a general idea. By using my plan, at least I could get rid of two. For getting rid of the third one, it all depends on whether my hunch was correct.

I changed the mode from [Active] to [Wait] before returning to my previous spot.

This time, I moved towards the side of where I previously stood. I kinda learned from previous battles, that unless I moved two steps (it's actually one step but I use two steps to be safe) from my previous location, the enemy would still lock-on to me and keep attacking—until I either dodged in the nick of time or got hit.

That was a reckless experiment, but since I didn't feel any pain anyway, and Fiona would resurrect me if I died—I took the risk.

Of course, I wouldn't allow myself to get hit easily. It's a cakewalk to dodge the attacks, especially when I set the battle animation to the slowest.

I'm not an idiot RPG character who just stand in place waiting for enemies to hit me. Even if I just stood in place, if the enemy attacks didn't touch me, it'd be labeled as a miss.

Going back to the present--it's kind of a risky plan; the main idea was to block the first one's movement before they left one step of my starting location. To prevent this, I opened my inventory and smeared wolf blood—my intuition was correct to only sell a bottle of it.

I measured it around the distance between my two feet as I took one step. I also marked the place I'd be standing, two steps diagonally from my previous one.

Just right after I finished my marking, and stood back up, the shadows also moved—which rendered me shocked. Did my actions were treated as [Item Usage]?

Thanks to the two-steps diagonal mark I left earlier, I could quickly move towards the optimal location before the enemy caught onto me, thank goodness they weren't that fast despite their AGI. I guess I underestimated their slowness earlier since I was just watching from a safe place.

...or maybe it's because I still left the animation to the slowest setting?

Oh yeah, it was.

Did my laziness just save me again?

Cold sweat started trickling like mad as the particular shadow figure got closer until it was only two steps apart.

Regardless of no particular threat happening, I still couldn't help but feel uneasy.

Even if, that chop which hit thin air looked harmless from distance, watching it up close made me felt akin to staring at death itself. Indescribable chills ran across my back as the chop landed on air. The feeling was even stranger when the figure retracted its hands and the atmosphere went back to normal--

"Now!"

As soon the figure finished its attack and turned back, I moved to block its pathway before it managed to take a step, right at the end point of single step I marked. I stood sideways as to watch from both directions--the figure stopped just one step by my side. Instead of rushing over and walked through, It made a static walking motion like being obstructed by an invisible wall.

It was successful.

Why did that happen though? What caused the invisible wall to form?

Remember the same invisible wall which blocked their lasers earlier? I kinda made a gamble, it would work the same way.

My hunch was right. Well, it probably wouldn't work if I just play it brain dead and got foolishly murdered.

The second figure proceeds towards where the first went. This time, those chills reached excruciating level. I got a nervous breakdown; unable to think of anything for a moment there. Since the figure approached from the other side, following the same game rules—would the invisible walls still work?

That peculiar figure also stopped one step from me, producing the same static walking animation.

"Ah, I'm sorry."

...why did I apologize? It wasn't even a human being...

I moved back toward my previous 'waiting' position marked by the wolf blood. Both figures moved two steps, which made me shudder in fear of an imminent failure but...

"Guaaaaah!"

A robotic muffled scream erupted from the first figure as it was struck by the second; it slumped down the floor lifelessly for few seconds, turning into particles of black light. After murdering its comrades without any visible expressions, the figure simply went back to its previous post.

I noticed something. Why did the enemy manage to attack each other? It's because the same enemy that was killed, stood at the place where I was supposed to be. I noticed earlier: the length of its steps were smaller than my own.

...and as the correction was based on my own steps, the enemy's treated like it was me, the target. From the mechanics, the figure practically hadn't left the spot I was supposed to be.

...to think that this success was due to my nervous breakdown. If I was still conscious, I might move away due to fear, completely averting my chance of success that one time. Though, even if I failed, it's not like everything would be lost—I could still try again as long that attack didn't actually reach me,

A major part of my success was probably due to the error correction of several inches, due to the length of my steps that weren't regular. Making the distance occupied a bit longer than what it seems. It's also the reason why I could still execute the attack motion on regular battles and completing my turn despite not returning to the exact position every time.

On the contrary, these enemies seem to always move at a fixed set of distance per step. Coupled with the error correction, and the fact that, even if they moved two steps and the total distance was slightly longer than my one step, the 'false positive' action would still proceed.

...and that was why, when I made my waiting position, I marked the length as two steps!

Measuring it was easier than making it around one three quarter and if it was between one to one-half step, I would still run onto the risk of being locked-on. After all, I didn't know the full extent of the error correction, but at least it didn't proc when I went two steps from my starting position.

No, not during this battle of course.

All the encounters I had with Fiona also consist of those research attempts. I just felt like experimenting with the mechanics first time 'round and I want to make it count, starting from the simplest things first.

Since I couldn't do anything much but to follow Fiona towards the city, I'd make the battles count. Thankfully there's a good amount of them to experiment.

If you're kind of felt that amount was too few for me to learn so much, nah—you didn't have any idea how long I dragged each fight just to learn things. If Fiona wasn't being such an unresponsive bloke, I would just go around farming monsters until I got bored as hell.

A lot of the monsters didn't actually net much gold, just that last orc who's a rare encounter.

After beating the orc, the feature to skip the journey was given to me. It's like this world was leading me implicitly to do this.

While I was still lost in thought—the third figure went and did the same thing without me noticing and my turn finally came again. That's why those now two figures stood still like an idiot.

Alright, I got this, time to prove my hunch.

To stay on the safe side, I stood in the same waiting place and set the battle wait to [Active]; calming myself down as the second figure walked onto the designated position and struck thin air. I didn't know what happen if I acted now and wasted a turn. It's best if I could just end it in one fell swoop. My gut feeling told me something's bad gonna happen if I left the last survivor for the next turn.

Strange how when it's just the second time, I felt a lot less pressure. Even if the chop was still frightening, I got used to it, somehow.

I blocked the second figure's path at the exact time it turned around. Holding deep breaths, I waited for the third figure to stop. I retreated two steps to my usual waiting position, but this time, instead of simply staring at another death scene, I anticipated the most important chance I had to take.

"Agagagaga...."

"I got this!"

This was a gamble of two circumstances. Both must succeed if I were to win with such a method.

Right after the second figure was struck and its killer turned back, I quickly grabbed the dead figure's flesh before it finally slumped to the ground and disappear.

[Equipped 'Death Eater Corpse'!]

"Sweet!"

I finally cleared the first condition: able to grab the corpse without any repercussions and obtain it as equipment.

It was impossible when it was alive since it's labeled as the enemy, now that it's dead—wasn't it basically an inanimate object? Yet, not all props could be recognized as a weapon.

Only if that particular object was able to seriously wound or even murder a normal adult human in a single hit, it could be considered as one. Of course, one's own skills actually matter. If you could kill someone with a spoon or fork, it would be recognized as one.

The System said to me while we were browsing weapons: always be wary of someone who used harmless objects to fight.

They're more often than not, top-ranked warriors who used it to lower the opponent's guard or to the more aware, intimidate them.

She also told me a legend about King Agamemnon, one of the most powerful warriors of legends.

He slew a dragon using a spoon.

I was like, seriously?

The System (loli) explained again: that spoon was made out of Damascus metal though, one of the purest holy metals that capable of bypassing the scales' damage resistance and amplify the destructive forces.

It was also the king's favorite spoon which gave the food a celestial feeling, making every meal reminiscent of Ambrosia, the food of the gods. His ancestor was a god, that's how he became so powerful. His other favorite weapon was the fork, but since he embraced the way of peace and harmony, he only used it to eat since he deemed it too violent in battle.

All that aside, did I just got lost in thought whilst wielding a corpse? I could barely feel anything but air in my hands. It was just so light as if I wasn't carrying anything.

[Death Eater's Corpse:

Description not available]

...huh, not even the slightest bit of clue.

Guess all that's left was just trying it out. I didn't want to ask System about everything. Even if she said, it wouldn't work out, I would still try it anyway.

I held the corpse delicately. The thing with an image, but no weight nor presence.

Maybe as a safety net so I wasn't continuously attacked, when I checked the options, the battle was automatically set to [Wait] again after it became my turn.

As I approached the sole survivor of the trio, I lifted the corpse's hand from behind and made a chopping motion towards the enemy.

This time, instead of simply striking down with a chop, the corpse's hand generated darkness, and in its trail, a black void was formed across the figure's body. Starting from a thin diagonal line, until it expands with an exploding noise until the last figure's body was sucked in.

"...gaaah...curse you...Godslayer!"

It managed to resist for a bit, reaching out his hands to chop me, but I was too far away from its reach.

"...our...goddess...won't...a—"

The outstretched hand was sliced by the void, which closed at an incredibly fast rate, after expanding to some extent.

...what was that cutoff? Was there something I wasn't supposed to hear?

Meanwhile, both the severed hand and the corpse I held start dissipating to thin air.

"Oh no you don't, [Unequip]!"

[Death Eater's Corpse became

'Incomplete Death Eater's Corpse'

The corpse of a Death Eater that lost the majority of its prowess. Unless recharged by an enormous amount of death energy, it would dissipate naturally over time.']

I was too late—this was outside my expectations. If I knew this beforehand I would unequip the corpse as soon as I struck the enemy.

My reflex was really so damn crap...

Should I use [Load Game]...well, it was...locked...

To my surprise, the tune of battle victory played out.

[Received 0 EXP and 0 Gold!]

"Oh for goodness sake I really worked hard on this and you---"

[Godslayer is now Lv. 1!]

.....ah.

Well, so what. As the battle was finally over, my exhaustion finally kicked in.

I took a bath, changed to my old clothes and slept.

That was a hell of an encounter, I just hope I wouldn't get nightmares from this.

Chapter 1 – Welcome to Beginner's Town – End.