Slaughter

"Mage Sword." Blue energy danced around my fingertips before coalescing to form a long energy sword that was curved like a scimitar. The spell was actually the Sacred Sword of Vishanti, but like the other spells in my repertoire that had long, complicated names, I shortened it to something simpler.

I infused more mana into the sword, lengthening it, though it still felt weightless in my hand. In the end, I was holding on to a 4ft long energy sword that glowed blue and hummed with energy.

'…I thought I would feel a lot more conflicted about this, but surprisingly I don't really have any qualms against taking a life. Wow, The Ancient One's words keeps getting more and more believable. Well, they're criminals and gang members after all, why should I feel any guilt over this?'

"Hah, I will just diligently do my job as the street cleaner."

With a single swipe, my Mage Sword sliced through the two gang members cleanly.

You have gained experience. +3,631 EXP

You have gained experience. +4,058 EXP

Oh nice! I even get EXP from killing people… ah, I am starting to see why the so many versions of me started to extinguish all life in the multiverse. With 7 billion humans on earth, and each one giving me so much EXP, I might achieve Godhood just eliminating the life on Earth. If I tried to annihilate the multiverse? Sheesh, talk about breaking the fourth wall.

Blood sprayed and splattered across the walls, but not a drop hit me due to Mage Armor acting as a arcane raincoat that blocked any drops of blood that would have otherwise landed on me.

Though there were other people on the streets, meth heads, the homeless or other such vagrants, none of them had any reaction to the brutal death of two men. That was because none of them could perceive it with my [Concealment] that hid not only myself but how I affected the world around me as well.

I calmly walked in through the front doors, my [Detection] notifying me of the location of every single person around me. After entering through the front door, I found myself in a hall way that had a scantily clad woman on the floor. She looked zoned out of her mind, so she was probably just a meth head.

…Not an enemy. Moving on.

I entered the closest room and immediately swung my arm. The Mage Sword elongated even further and was swung like a whip. My still low DEX stat was not enough to control the weapon, which immediately pierced or cut through several heads at once, but the [Swordsmanship] skill auto-corrected my technique.

The room I had entered had guns on the table while several other gang-member looking individuals were counting a pile of cash. Among them, I had recognized one of them as one of the robbers who had dared to rob my family.

As a result, I did not hesitate to immediately take their lives. My Mage Sword carved through their bodies like a hot knife through butter. 

You have gained experience. +3,552 EXP

You have gained experience. +2,965 EXP

You have gained experience. +3,198 EXP

You have gained experience. +3,884 EXP

You have gained experience. +3,952 EXP

You have levelled up!

The four/five men fell almost at the same time, blood pouring out of their open, fatal wounds.

[Conjuration] has levelled up.

[Swordsmanship] has levelled up

Oh, like I expected, hands-on practice with skills would definitely give more skill EXP compared to just reading. Even more so when I was using it on people.

In that case… should I also try grinding other skills? I still had other spells I could try using as well.

But first… I eyed the pile of cash on the table that I had quickly cast a weak barrier spell on to prevent any blood spilling on them.

What do I do with this? I mulled over this decision for only half a second before swiping the cash and stuffing it all in my inventory.

You have gained $12,360.

Wao, crime does pay! I wondered if there were more caches of similar loot in the building.

You have gained Baretta 92 Pistol x2

You have gained Smith & Wesson M29 Revolver

You have gained Glock 17 Pistol

You have gained 9mm Bullets x218

You have gained .44 Magnum Bullets x56

Of course, I didn't forget about the guns and their rounds that had been lying around the room.

As OP as my [Concealment] was, I didn't know if I would still stay hidden after firing a gun, so I just stored them in my inventory for now. Just like how I couldn't poke someone's face without breaking my concealment, the painful noise from a gunshot indoors would similarly break concealment.

I wanted to find somewhere for practice sometime in the future, to hone my skill with a firearm and of course to generate any skills if possible.

I looked through my skills, and quickly picked out a few of them to grind and practice using in actual people.

For actual combat, other than magic spells, I only had [Swordsmanship] and [Martial Arts]. Swordsmanship would improve even if I was using Mage Sword, no, maybe it improved quicker because of Mage Sword.

[Martial Arts] was a skill that had been created after I read some a book on Taekwondo and tried out some high kicks. It was a skill that passively improved damage, and reduced damage taken when I used martial arts.

[Martial Arts] Lvl: 2

You have an affinity for martial arts

Damage when using martial arts: +20%

Damage taken when using martial arts: -10%

It seemed to apply to all martial arts regardless of which martial art I had been practicing when I first acquired it. And miraculously, the skill could even increase my martial talent. At level 1, the skill description was, 'You have a slight talent for martial arts.'

When it levelled up, the description turned into 'You have an affinity for martial arts.' And right after, I could immediately see through the stiffness in my kicks and the instability of my stance, and amend my weaknesses.

It was uncertain how big of a part a skill like [Martial Arts] would play in my future arsenal of weapons and tools at my disposal, but I didn't think it would be a waste to grind it up. It has always been a slow growing skill, but I realised that I just needed victims- ahem, training partners.

However, I thought about it and decided that tonight was not a night to train my skills. While I had magic and skills, my STR stat was still below the level of an average adult man. I doubt I would be able to silently kill a man and still remain in concealment.