Marco

"PYTHON! THAT IS SO IMPRESSIVE!!" Adam shouted as he stroked his Weak Red Wyrmling's head.

"Alright. The three of you, get in line once more." He ordered his Tamed Monsters.

The three Tamed Monsters stood in front of Adam.

Light and Rose were sitting at Python's sides, even though he was the smallest.

Python was after all their elder. He was Adam's first Tamed Monster.

"If I were to give myself a rank, it would be between [E+] and [D-]..."

As Adam said that, his three monsters tilted their heads sideways.

"...I can defeat an Ogre or a Goblin Chief alone after all. I would say that each one of us has the strength of an [E+] monster, although Light is an [E] rank and Python is probably bottom [E+]. The four of us can easily clear an [E] Rank Dungeon. After all, Light, Python and I have already cleared one. It was before your evolutions too." Adam explained.

"Now, all the closest [E] or [F] Dungeons have already been cleared. This means that the only Dungeons close to here are [D] Rank Dungeons. In [D] Rank Dungeons, [E] rank monsters will be very common and we will see many [D] rank monsters. Dealing with one [D-] monster is not a problem. Dealing with a [D] rank monster such as The Great Snake might be impossible." He finally realized that he had been talking all this time to his Tamed Monsters.

'A [D] Rank Dungeon is not possible for not. In the Orc Camp [E], there were more than eighty [E-] monsters. A dungeon filled with eighty [D-] monsters such as The Spider Queen or that Great Mutated Gorilla would be close to suicide...'

He told his three Tamed Monsters to come back inside his Monster Tamer's Bracelet.

Adam decided to take a weapon out of his Inventory.

It was the Leader's Battle Axe.

He held it with two hands and started swinging it.

...

Three hours later, the sun was rising ever so slightly.

Adam was lying in the middle of the wheat field.

"Stats."

[ Stats: Strength: 76(+11)

Agility: 67(+0)

Dexterity: 25(+0)

Sense: 65(+0)

Vigor & Endurance: 44(+2)

Magic Affinity: 50(+0)

Mana: 43(+0)

Stealth: 70(+0)

Unused Stat Points: 0(+0)

]

'Only 13 Stat Points after three hours... I guess I could have trained more seriously...' Adam thought as he looked at the sky.

"Maybe it's time to go back." He whispered as he stood up.

Suddenly, he heard a noise.

Despite turning towards it, he couldn't pinpoint where it came from nor what it was.

Adam concentrated a bit more.

He thought that someone was screaming from far away.

If it wasn't for his Extended Earshot Skill and high Sense Stat, it would have been impossible to hear it.

Someone screamed.

Adam turned his gaze towards the house, before sprinting in the direction the scream was coming from.

The closer he got, the louder and clearer he could hear that person screaming.

'What the hell? WHAT THE HELL??'

That was the last shout he heard.

'What's happening??'

Adam ran even faster.

After reaching the other side of the wheat field, he found a young boy.

He must have been six years old.

The boy was on the ground, lying on his stomach.

It looked like he was unable to move.

"Hey? HEY?" Adam shouted as he got closer.

"H...H...Help...Me..." The young boy said.

As Adam got closer to him, he noticed many scars on the boy's legs and arms.

The scars looked recent.

He was still bleeding from them.

Adam turned the boy over and helped him sit up.

He noticed that the boy's forehead was bleeding.

A singular vertical and shallow wound on the middle of his forehead could be seen.

Upon sitting up, the boy coughed.

Blood squirted out of his mouth.

"What....What is.... What happened...."

The boy interrupted Adam.

"...Wa...ter...." The young boy struggled to mutter that one word.

Adam took out his Neverending Water Source Artefact, opened it and helped the boy drink from it.

The boy's lips were chapped and he looked extremely dehydrated.

He was wearing a tank top and shorts.

Even though he didn't want to let go of the water, Adam pulled it away from him.

"Here, drink this instead." He said as he handed the young boy a glass bottle filled with a green liquid.

The young boy looked at it for a bit before accepting it and drinking it in one gulp.

He had a perplexed expression.

'What was that? Suddenly, it doesn't hurt anymore...' The young boy thought.

A handful of seconds later, he realized that his injuries were slowly disappearing.

His throat didn't hurt anymore and the arm that he previously couldn't move was now okay.

The young boy turned to face Adam suddenly and put both his hands on Adam's shoulders.

"You! You're a magician! You must...You must come with me!" The boy said as he shook Adam's shoulders.

"What? No, it's just..."

Adam was interrupted once more.

"You don't understand!! I... We need your help! Please! They caught me first, and then..."

"Wait. Wait. What are you talking about?" Adam shouted.

The young boy had an extremely worried expression.

He stood up in a heartbeat.

"PLEASE! YOU HAVE TO COME! They have my sister! And it's my fault! I managed to escape... But she's still there!"

"Where is she? Where did you escape from? How did you get those scars??"

"We don't have time! Follow me! Please! You're a magician! Am sure you will save them!" The boy shouted as he started running away from Adam.

'What the hell is up with this kid??'

Adam ran up to the kid.

"What are you talking about? Tell me everything!"

"I don't... I can't... talk and run..." The boy said, already out of breath.

'He must have run a lot in the first place to come here. His Endurance Points must be depleted.'

Adam stood in front of the kid and told him to climb on his back.

The boy who could pass out from exhaustion at any point in time obliged.

"Hang on tight." Adam said as he started running nowhere near his top speed.

The boy was taken aback by the speed of this "magician".

"YES! I knew it! If you're a magician who is this fast, am sure you can save them!" The kid shouted.

"Where are we going first?" Adam asked as he continued running.

"It's that way." The kid said as he pointed in a certain direction.

Adam started running even faster.

"Am running fast, alright? So tell me everything. Where's your sister? Where did you escape from? Did the two of you enter a Dungeon?"

"No... We were... playing outside..." The kid muttered with a gloomy expression.

Adam stopped running at once.

"What...."

"Don't loosen your grip. You'll fall." Adam said as he accelerated once more.

The boy nodded and held Adam tighter.

"We were playing outside the house. Our parents were playing in the field..."

'So they live in a nearby farm...' Adam thought.

"We went a bit too far from the house... They... Mom and dad... They warned us not to... They warned me not to..."

Adam's heart ached at the boy's tale.

"I... I went too far away from the house. I got lost. I was scared and I didn't know where to go. My sister found me while I was crying. As we were walking back, we forgot how to go back home. We walked and walked around... Until it was dark..."

The boy took a long pause.

But Adam did not press him. He focused on running as fast as possible.

"When it got dark... We couldn't see anything, except a bright light. People were... Lighting a fire... We got closer and... And there were adults and kids around the big fire..."

The kid gulped.

The arms wrapped around Adam's neck started shaking.

"We thought... We thought they would help us... We thought... That they were good people..." The boy muttered as tears fell from his face onto his carrier's shoulder.

Adam's expression changed completely as he started running faster without realizing it.

"Mister... You have to help us... It's not just my sister... There are lots of others... They kept us... inside the church... They said... The gods wanted us there..." The boy's voice shook.

A vein looked like it was about to pop on Adam's face.

"Hold on tight. I understand. Don't worry." Adam said coldly as he accelerated even further.

The boy closed his eyes and pushed his head into Adam's shoulder, seemingly hiding his tears and pain.

Adam gritted his teeth as Purple dense Mana was faintly emitted by his body without him knowing.

"How far are they?"

"... I... I escaped during the day... I kept running and walking until I got here... I tried to walk in a straight line...So that I can go back... There's a river or something near that church... "

'It took you all day and night to arrive here... A river, huh? I don't know much about this place. We never ventured this far since the Dungeons were close...'

They kept moving for a while.

Thanks to his high Vigor & Endurance Stat, Adam didn't tire at all.

The young boy, on the other hand, was getting more and more worried.

He told Adam that some adults were keeping his sister and other kids there.

But he had no idea why that was.

Two hours later, Adam's ear twitched.

He slowed down and stopped running.

The boy was surprised but didn't say anything.

Adam concentrated on the different sensations his senses picked up.

'Twitches from that bush... Birds chirping... That way... Yes... Water flowing... The sound is coming from there...' Adam thought.

He turned his body ever so slightly towards the left and started running once more.

The boy's eyes widened as he watched the "Magician" in action.

'So... Cool...' He thought for a second, forgetting his pain.

Ten minutes later, the two arrived.

"It's here... They're here... My sister...." The boy muttered as his whole body started trembling.

It had taken him about 14hours to run from the church to where Adam had found him, but it only took Adam about 2hours to get there.

They could see a river a couple of hundred meters in front of them.

Before that river stood a church, an old church.

While it used to be a beautiful place of worship where people used to go every week, it was now nothing of the sort.

Even from afar, it looked like nothing more than a desolate ruined building.

Adam, whose sight was inhuman, could see its features in every small detail.

The cross at the top of the church was missing, it had probably been stolen.

The colorful windows that used to depict scenes were broken.

Its outside walls had been vandalized.

Many words and graffiti had been sprayed on it.

Adam could read words such as "Fear", "Finally" or "Redemption".

He told the boy to wait for him from this safe distance.

"NO! I... Want to come. My sister is there... And I already ran away once..."

Adam ran towards the church with the boy on his back.

"You don't come inside. Once you're with your sister, you run away and hide until I come find you, okay?"

The boy nodded.

Once they were in front of the church's door, the young boy got off Adam's back.

His whole body was trembling, he stood behind Adam.

Adam gently tapped the boy's shoulder before putting his hand on the door's handle.

All that could be heard were whispers.

As he opened the door, Adam was met with a surreal scene that left him unable to move.

His hands trembled, his eyes widened and his mouth was open in a sort of surprise.

It was like he was suddenly thrown into another world.

About twenty meters away from him, standing on an elevated platform, an old man with red pupils and a dignified face was giving a speech.

He was wearing a white robe with golden motifs, a necklace made of precious stones on his neck.

His white hair was long and fell on his shoulders.

The huge window behind him was broken.

Rays of light illuminated him from above and behind, making him look godly in a way.

As Adam lowered his gaze, he saw a dozen children sitting in a circle around the priest.

Many of them were crying silently, while the rest had expressionless faces, as if dead inside.

The children were sitting on chairs and gave their backs to the priest.

Their hands were tied to the chairs and their mouths shut with cloths.

Around the children, twenty adults, men and women, were bowing down to them or to the priest.

The adults were whispering chants or prayers.

11 Children were sitting on chairs.

One seat was left empty.

Adam felt cold sweat go down his back, his breathing became much heavier and his legs started trembling at the scene.

"ARIA!" The young boy behind Adam shouted.

The priest, who hadn't noticed them, stopped his speech and looked at Adam.

The adults raised their heads from the floor and looked at the intruders with angry faces.

The priest gave Adam and the boy a warm smile.

"You've come back, Marco. We were worried about you. This is an important time, you know? Your seat cannot remain empty." The priest said in a calm voice.

A girl sitting on one of the chairs raised her head and upon seeing the young boy shouted.

Although she was unable to utter words because of the cloth in her mouth, she shouted with all her might.

"I see you brought a friend. Good. Having friends is an important part of a human's life. I am glad you have experienced it." The priest added.

The young boy behind Adam, Marco, got closer to him and held his tank top tightly.

"L-L-LET ARIA GO!" Marco shouted.

The priest gave him a smile, but his eyes shone a bloody red.

His intentions were hard to tell.

"That won't do. We need Aria. We also need you, Marco. You are needed here, can't you see? Tell your friend to go away."

[ The Sacrificial Lamb's Devourer is warning you.]

[ The Sacrificial Lamb's Devourer is telling you to back off.]

Despite his trembling hands, Adam took a step forward.

"Am not going away and he is not staying here. Those other children are leaving too." He said.

"Am sorry, but that won't be possible. This is your last warning, my child. Do not go against the Lord's ambition, for you will know his wrath otherwise." The priest responded with a smile.

His smile seemed sincere and full of love and affection, as if the priest was looking at his own child.

Adam took another step forward.

"My child, you have sinned. Live eternally to redeem yourself in your next life."

As the priest finished his sentence, three men who were on the ground stood up and walked towards Adam.

They were armed with Iron Daggers, and they were not scared to use them.

'I don't.... want to....'

Adam had a worried expression.

He wasn't ready for this.

As he took a step back involuntarily, his back collided with Marco.

Adam looked back at the young boy.

A six-year-old boy who came crying for help.

A young boy with a scar on his forehead.

The type of scar that is not natural.

The type of scar that can only be given to a human being by another human being.

Adam clenched both his fists as he faced the three incoming men.