Lys's eyes snapped back to Mira. The mini golems were piling on her now, more of them than she could cleanly cut down. Every time the wind edge from her sword took one apart, two more lurched into the gap. Her breathing had grown sharper. The confident swing from earlier was starting to look forced.
A pair of the dirt golems slipped past her left side and headed straight for Selene, who was still crouched with both palms flat on the ground.
Though they looked so small and somewhat cute, Lys didn't think twice. He moved without wasting a second, knowing even a second meant these things could potentially harm her.
He closed the distance in three long strides and brought the flat of the cursed sword around in a hard sideways slam.
The first golem caught the full force of it and left the ground entirely, tumbling end over end until it smashed into the dirt almost ten feet away. The thing didn't get back up. A faint dark shimmer ran along the blade for half a second, and the familiar cold pull of absorption of its corrupt mana settled into his palm.
[Corrupt Mana Absorbed: +18]
[Host Mana Restored: +9]
[EXP Gained: 34]
[Level 1: 162 / 200]
That same notification of his kill showed in front of him as the creature he hit died instantly. He focused more on it.
Selene's head lifted. Her eyes found him immediately. She spoke up.
"Lys. You came."
He kept his stance between her and the remaining golems, voice low and tight.
"What the hell are you two doing out here? Weren't you drained of mana an hour ago? Mira had to even half-carry you home. How are you even standing?"
Selene first stared at him, then she only gave him a small, crooked smirk and didn't answer. The ward shimmered around her hands, pulsing once more, shoving a chicken-like creature back a step from coming onto her.
Lys stared at her smile for a beat longer. Seeing her proud smile, the pieces clicked together in his head instantly.
'Wait a minute, she cracked it? She actually cracked the mana-breathing?'
The thought sat there, half disbelief and half hope. He had watched her fail for hours. With sweat, shaking hands, and quiet frustration for falling short of even pulling just a bit of mana. And now she was out here throwing wards like it was nothing?
Before he could dig any deeper into that, Mira's voice cut across the noise.
"Guys! Care to lend me some help here before these things bury me?"
Lys turned his head just enough to look at her. She was still swinging, still cutting, but the strain from swinging too much was clear in the set of her shoulders.
"Why? You seem to be getting by just fine on your own," he called back. "Why would you need my help now? You looked awfully eager to jump into danger the second I and Mom weren't home, watching you. Why not figure this part yourself too?"
Mira's next swing faltered for half a second. Her eyes flicked toward him, the stubborn set of her mouth softening into something apologetic, as if asking for help in her begging eyes.
Lys let out a short breath through his nose.
"Yeah, yeah. Coming."
He stepped up beside her and grabbed the sword to do it properly this time.
He started doing short, sharp arcs. Every time the blade connected with a golem, the compacted dirt and stone flew. He tried putting real weight behind the swings, sending the smaller constructs tumbling ten, fifteen, even twenty feet back toward the breach. The cold pull of absorption came with each kill, small amounts, nothing like the hobgoblin, but the numbers added up fast.
Even while swinging, he kept glancing at the small notification around his vision's edge. He needed to figure out how this works. Whether he wanted to or not, he was going to need to rely on this system sooner or later. Having realised that by now, he kept experimenting by killing these small monsters in various ways.
[Corrupt Mana Absorbed: +12]
[Host Mana Restored: +6]
[EXP Gained: 27]
[Level 1: 189 / 200]
[Corrupt Mana Absorbed: +15]
[Host Mana Restored: +8]
[EXP Gained: 31]
[Level 1: 220 / 200]
Just as the EXP got fuller than its requirements, a new notification appeared.
[Congratulations…LEVEL UP]
[Level 1 → Level 2]
[10 Skills Points Awarded]
He got leveled up.
He noticed there were 10 skill points awarded, just like before, when he got leveled up from 0 to 1. That meant with each level up he was going to get 10 points awarded each time.
He pulled up the main sword screen.
---Cursed Sword of the Fallen Witch---
Level 2: 220/400
Skill Points: 20
Skills:
Sword-Shield: Passive defensive stance. Automatically redirects a percentage of incoming physical damage back at the attacker when CorpseSlayer is held as a shield. (Level 1 - Upgrade requirement: 5 Skill Points),
Sword Bash: User can hit the target with the edgeless part of the sword, giving the target twice the damage than the user put effort for. (Level 1 - upgrade requirement: 10 Skill Points)
Cursed Object Attributes: Corrupt Mana Absorption, Experience Absorption
There it was. His new skill points. Alongside the way it described how to use them. It mentioned he could use these points to level up the skills he gets through them. Though he didn't remember seeing the new skill on it before, it required more skill points than Sword Shield.
'That must be more useful. That's why it costs more. And it seems I can't choose skill from several options like the first level up. I guess that was only a one time treat.' He guessed.
There was also another thing he noticed. The corrupt mana absorption rate seems to be double the amount of mana he restores with each kill. Plus, the exp gain seemed random. With some monsters, despite getting way too much corrupt mana from them, he wasn't getting much exp from them. He tried to think about that, but one of the golems he launched went wide and bounced hard near the line of neighborhood women. A sharp voice cut through the fighting.
"Lys! Stop swinging these fuckers at me! Throw them that way!"
The woman who had shouted jabbed a finger toward another fighter farther down the line, who immediately looked offended at being volunteered as the new landing zone.
Lys offered the first woman an awkward half-smile and adjusted his next swing so the flying dirt construct sailed harmlessly past both of them and into the open ground near the breached gate.
Before long he found himself swinging the sword again without really thinking about it. The sword felt lighter in his hands than before. The rhythm of the fight, step, cut, absorb, step again, settled into something almost automatic to him, as if he had been practising with it for years. Around him the chaos kept boiling: women shouting, spears jabbing, the sharp crack of golems coming apart when Mira cut them, the frantic darting of the feathered creatures. And under all of it, a strange feeling started rising in his chest, as he also fought beside all of them.
It was exciting.
The realization hit him harder even while his hands were busy. His pulse was up, but not just from fear. There was something else mixed in, something sharp and almost eager. He wanted to keep going. To cut more of them down. To feel the sword drink whatever power they carried and keep leveling up. Getting stronger on his own terms, not because some quest told him to. Fight until his arms burn and feel the rush of danger along with it.
The thought should have scared him if this came before he came to this world. He was always a weakass person, wherever he went. Yeah, he was physically stronger, but his heart was not made for fighting, as far as he knew. But this, this changed his opinion of what he knew about himself.
'Do I really like fighting and getting stronger? Like in a game?' The thought surprised him, even though the evidence was right in front of him.
For a second, the memory of the hobgoblin fight flashed behind his eyes: the crushing weight, the near-death experience, the way his body had refused to move when that thing slammed into him all of a sudden. He still carried that cold knot somewhere under his ribs. Maybe it was trauma. Maybe it was just common sense reminding him how close he had come to dying.
But even with that fear sitting there, he still couldn't deny this other part. He still wanted this. The fight. The progress. The simple, brutal clarity of swinging a sword and killing monsters.
He was still turning that over in his head when a golem launched itself from the side, aiming straight for Mira's unprotected back while she was locked in a messy exchange with two of the small chicken-creatures.
Lys's body moved before the rest of him caught up.
The cursed sword came around in a clean, rising arc. He didn't hold back in this swing, killing two of them in a single arc. His system gave a satisfying notification in front of his vision.
[Corrupt Mana Absorbed: +15]
[Host Mana Restored: +8]
[EXP Gained: 41]
[Level 2: 350 / 400]