Eisha, who had hidden herself earlier behind one of the cavern pillars near the entrance of the cave, jumped down from high above and landed on the back of the mantis.
She had climbed up the pillar earlier and it was a good decision on her part since the mantis was rather large.
When she landed and the insect’s large abdomen, the monster was surprised and tried to shake her off. Eisha stabilized herself with her enhanced stats on the back of the insect and to Julius’s surprise, she stabbed her hands into the monster’s back without any hesitation.
Eisha’s hands pierced through the monster’s hard-looking shell like it wasn’t even there. She pulled her hands back out and pieces of the monster’s shell and innards followed. She hadn’t even grimaced in pain or anything.
Julius carefully observed her and noticed one thing, Eisha’s fingers and nails had elongated to form sharp claws. Her hands were dripping with the monster’s blood and pieces of its flesh were stuck on her claws.
She had a fiery look on her face and continued to rend apart the wound she created on the monster’s abdomen.
The two homunculi, No.1 & No.2, took this chance when the monster was wounded by Eisha and was trying to toss her off its back, to restrain it in place. Their arms changed into tentacles as they quickly restrained the monster’s dangerous forelimbs and legs.
Their elongated limbs and tentacles were rather flexible so they weren’t cut apart by the monster’s sharp forelimbs and they were smart enough to restrain it at its joints. With the monster tied down, Eisha rained hell on the insect’s back, rending it apart and exposing its innards.
“Eisha, aim for the heart!”
Eisha paused for a moment and quickly began searching with her eyes. An insect’s heart was much different than a human’s or a mammal’s heart. It wasn’t obvious at first glance because it was tube-shaped but once Eisha found any organ that was ‘beating’ she immediately aimed for it and pried it out of the monster’s body.
The monster could only shriek in pain as Eisha dismantled its innards. Hearing their comrade’s cries of death from within the cave, the monsters outside began rampaging around but they weren’t able to tear down the sturdy fleshwall.
They could only give up and back away as the monster’s cries began dying down from inside.
Julius saw that some of the red dots on his minimap were moving away with only a few ones remaining, he heaved a relieved sigh as well when the monsters stopped attacking the fleshwall.
[Fleshwall Lv.1
Durability: 50/1000
Condition: Critical, repairs needed!]
Just a few more hits and the wall would have come crashing down and exposing them to the monsters outside.
Inside the cave, Eisha had just finished rending the monster apart with her transformed claws. When she jumped down and looked up, she quickly found Julius already standing in front of her.
Her eyes brightened as she asked, “Did Eisha do well, Prince?”
Julius wasn’t repulsed at all by Eisha’s transformation or the fact that she was covered in the flesh and blood of the monster she just killed. He hugged her tightly not minding all that and said, “You did good Eisha, you did really good. Much better than I first anticipated.”
“!”
Eisha’s hands quickly transformed back to their original shape and she immediately returned the hug.
“There are still a few more monsters outside. I think we can deal with them together, yeah?”
“Yes, Prince!”
Julius looked at the screen that just popped up in front of him and he smiled.
[Achievement: First Blood!
Create Weapon: ??? Has been unlocked.
Generate Spell: ??? Has been unlocked
Please select carefully as the first weapon that is created will be locked as default and cannot be changed until Create Weapon & Generate Spell has leveled up.]
Julius already knew what he wanted. This time around, he didn’t need to stay useless and wait on the sidelines like earlier.
He released Eisha from his embrace and walked over to the monster’s corpse. He stabbed his hand into it and invoked the command.
“Create Weapon: Bow.”
Julius pulled back his hand and along with it a bow. It had the simple design of an ordinary composite bow. The color was the same as the monster’s carapace, a dirty brown color mixed with strands of dark red and yellow.
He gripped it hard and walked to the fleshwall and opened it. The two homunculi as well as Eisha already understood what he wanted without even asking.
There were only 3 monsters left waiting outside after the rest had pulled back and returned to their swarm. Julius was going to deal with these stragglers and have them become the material foundation for the base he was going to create.
As Julius raised his hand and pulled back the bowstring, he mumbled to himself, “Generate Spell: Wind Arrow.”
He could have chosen any other spell, but this was the one he wanted. He didn’t have any arrows so this was the best thing to use. He didn’t create fire, ice, earth, or lightning arrows. He used wind instead, and that was because―
“KIIEEEEEKKK!!!” One of the monsters in the distance cried out in pain as one of its eyes exploded.
Julius let loose the wind arrow he had knocked on his newly created bow and almost like a bullet from a magic rifle, it immediately impacted the monster with deadly force and precision.
The wind arrow spell didn’t have any special attributes like the fire arrow that could burn a target or the ice arrow that could freeze and slow down a target. It didn’t have the impact power of the earth arrow nor the paralyzing effects of the electric arrow.
The wind arrow’s specialty was its speed and stealth. With extreme speed, it could immediately hit a target the moment it was released and with the speed came precision.
All Julius needed to do was direct the arrow in the right direction and it would hit its target. It also didn’t have any form so it was hard to guard against since it wasn’t visible to the naked eye.
The only way was for a monster or a person to react by reading the wind flow which wasn’t something just anyone could do. Against normal monsters, it was the perfect projectile and against normal humans, it was the best tool for stealthy and traceless kills.
Julius was not much of a swordsman, but he was an expert marksman. Back when he was still in his Empire, he showed great talent for marksmanship as he trained in using the bow, crossbow, and magic rifle from a young age.
He preferred using the bow compared to any of the others and he was really good at it. His brothers and peers envied how their seemingly ‘useless’ and ‘unlucky’ prince and brother were gifted with such great talent.
Julius was just fundamentally different from the rest of his peers because he was a Fiend, not a human, something he just found out recently. It was because of this difference in races that he had acquired cheat-like abilities and talents from a young age.
Normally, it would be something to rejoice over but people saw it as abnormal due to the Church of Holy Light’s prophecy. Possessed by a demon or unnatural talents because his soul was souled to the devils, those were the results of him showing off his talents.
And because of that, Julius’s status menu, which should have displayed grades of STR, AGI, and INT of a higher level, only displayed his stats as D-rank because he was restricted by the environment he previously lived in.
Now, however, with no one here to criticize him, Julius let loose. He knocked wind arrow after wind arrow and aimed it at the monsters’ eyes. His shots struck true as every pair of monster eyes exploded at the impact of his wind arrows.
“Go! Bring their corpses back for me!” Julius commanded.
Eisha already had her claws out as she rushed to one of the monsters. The other two homunculi worked together to bring down another one as he rained hell on the remaining one.
Julius didn’t know but his eyes had turned red from bloodlust as he continued to release arrow after arrow. The monster’s carapace was pierced through and he even charged up a shot and maimed one of the monster’s forearms.
He steadily walked towards the monster and continued firing, when the monster was already on the ground, pierced and punctured, and within an inch away from breathing its last breath, Julius charged up and shot one final arrow, blowing away the monsters’ head.
“...”
[Level up! 1 → 2]
Julius ignored the prompt for a moment as he breathed in and held his breath. A moment later he released it and roared with laughter.
“HAAHAHAHAHAHHHHHH!!!”
All of his pent-up feelings―the scorn, the pain, the humiliation, the betrayal, the anger, and the hatred―he let it all loose. The homunculi and even the monsters in the distance stopped what they were doing as they feel all his emotions let loose in that single mad howl of laughter.
Eisha just stared at him and waited for her prince to let loose. He was patient, extremely patient. Not once had he objected or spoken out at the unfair treatment he received back when he was still at the Empire.
He kept it all in, bottled up and hidden far away in a corner in his heart. Now that nothing was restraining him, he let it all out. Eisha, as well as the two homunculi, could feel that their lord was changing mentally.
Julius stopped howling in the next moment and quickly ordered the two homunculi to drag the corpses back.
“You two. get to work.”
He then turned towards Eisha with a refreshed smile and said, “Eisha, let’s go back.”
“Mhm.”
Julius took her hand and the two walked back to the cave hand in hand. Julius felt good that he let it all out. His mentality had changed and with the new power he had―
“I’m going to crush this world...and mold it into one where I won’t need to live in fear or oppression by any of those bugs!”