NOVEL NEXT Chapter 57 My Way!
Liam was pretty sure that his combat prowess was much higher than what his stats suggested. His equipment and the way he could use it, allowed him to fight opponents that were much stronger than he was.
Killing the Mutant Elite Shedim hadn't been difficult even though the Lesser Demon's average stats were certainly higher than his own. Being in possession of a high Vitality stat and a unique Soultrait naturally increased the overall rating of his combat prowess. Furthermore, he had a high-quality bloodline, if one put it in very simple terms, so it was only obvious that the Arcane System considered him higher than others.
Selling all corpses in his Small Shop increased his fortune once again, but Liam's mind was already somewhere else. They were bound to encounter more Mutant Elite Shedim and even stronger monsters and demons further down the underground tower. He was fine with that but the others were likely to face problems fighting the Mutant Elite Shedims.
'If they cannot even handle a Mutant Elite Shedim, taking them further down with me would be quite problematic…' He thought while glancing over to the natives who were standing in front of the tower's huge entrance hesitantly.
With that thought in mind, Liam reconsidered postponing descending the underground tower until he was sure that the others would be capable enough to kill a Mutant Elite Shedim when they would come face to face with one eventually.
"The lot of you should be strong enough to fight Mutant Elite Shedims, but I want to take a look at this myself. I just want to see how you would do it and what you guys are actually capable of. I need to gauge your combat prowess!" Liam said in a matter-of-fact tone.
However, when looking over to the natives who kept glancing at him as if he had grown another head, he tilted his head and began to rethink his decision and what he just said.
It took him a few seconds to regain his composure. He shook his head and put on a serious expression after coming to a conclusion.
"Just forget what I said earlier," Liam announced all of a sudden, "I will not change my plans just because you guys are following me. I will not waste my time pulling one Mutant Elite Shedim after another to the surface just to gauge your combat prowess. You guys will have to keep up with me if you want to follow me. It is your job to adapt to my needs, not the other way around!"
His words were nothing but the truth. It left a bad taste in the natives' mouths but they understood that they had to adapt to the mannerisms and expectations of the person from whom they wanted something, not the other way around. Liam had already been nice enough to adjust himself to their pace and momentum in the last few days. Expecting too much from him, let alone demanding anything from him meant that they would overstep their boundaries.
But even if they were to overstep their boundaries, the natives couldn't help but look at Liam with puppy eyes. Even Olivia couldn't help but feel a little hopeful that Liam adjusted his plans in their favor.
"Wouldn't it be better if you were to adjust your plans to train us a little…just the basics…that way you may be a little bit slower in the next few days but you would gain powerful allies in the long run. Your plans would be completed much faster if you think about it!" She insisted further, trying to ignore Liam's glare. That was certainly not easy because his gaze was enough to make her hair stand up to its end, and for Olivia to bite her lower lip after facing him for a few seconds.
Olivia was a bit embarrassed about her demand but she knew that it was necessary to point out the possible gains Liam could make from training the six of them. It was much better to have six helping hands by his side rather than a deadweight holding him back.
She felt that her words made sense, but Liam ended up snickering. His royal purple eyes shone for a moment as he looked into Olivia's eyes.
"Why should I care about that?" He responded, leaving Olivia momentarily unable to form a coherent response.
"Why do I have to care whether you guys become stronger or not? The more I help you guys the higher is the possibility that the six of you will unite and go up against me once I'm of no use to you guys anymore.
There is only one reason why I don't kill you guys and accept your presence, but that reason may change at any moment, or cease to exist altogether. I am not a nice person and you guys are either strong enough to follow me, or I will keep getting stronger until none of you will be able to keep up with my progress.
I have my plans and the determination to become stronger by all means, and I've said it clearly enough, I won't spend my time teaching some teenagers, who were raised in a sheltered environment.
If you guys really want to survive, watch, learn, adapt, overcome, and grow with the experiences you get. Life will teach you how to survive, not some Halfling!"
In a way, Liam's words made sense. It was only obvious that he had better things to do than playing nanny and teacher at the same time to the natives he had barely known for a few days.
From what they understood, Liam was powerful but he didn't know how to teach either. His movements and merciless fighting style had been created and honed on the battlefield, while he fought for his survival.
It was similar for the students right now, but there were still major differences in their upcoming struggles.
Liam didn't want to teach the natives and he couldn't teach them properly, in the first place, even if he wanted to.
It didn't matter whether they misinterpreted his words or if they understood him properly. Fact was that he chose against teaching the natives and his decision was final.
They began to understand this as well, forcing the natives to accept that staying by Liam's side meant that they had to learn everything on their own while having countless life-threatening encounters with other monsters which they would have to overcome all by themselves most of the time.
That was actually something the natives could look forward to because they had Liam by their side.
Even if Liam acted very cold, most of the time, they somehow assumed that his core was actually soft.
The natives were certain that Liam would help them if push came to shove, and they followed him inside the underground dungeon, not knowing how frail and unpredictable life truly was.
**
If you want to support me use your golden tickets and powerstones.
You can also visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/HideousGrain
More character images and nice chats about the HideVerse:
https://discord.gg/EdsDgFVWwZ
Link also in my description.
Do you like it? Leave a review and add it to the library!