Skill Creation in the Fantasy World

The way back to the tunnel's intersection was quiet and heavy.

With their bloodied and worn bodies, the group limped ahead, their exhaustion worsened by the grim duty of carrying four fallen comrades.

'Am I going to get used to the deaths of people around me from now on?....'

Felix remained deep in his thoughts as he sighed constantly, but the presence of his teammates around him made the situation better than what he could handle.

'It's a terrible feeling... But why didn't I feel the same when I killed those bandits and our enemies? Is that not the same? What was I feeling then? Happy? Satisfied?'

He frowned, then after a few seconds, he widened his eyes as he realised why.

'The skill points.... I was only thinking about the skill points I'd get every time I faced an enemy.'

Felix sighed again, understanding the reason why he was feeling like this after witnessing the deaths of people who were on his side.

'I didn't feel this way when I killed all those monsters, just like how I massacred the Bladefiends. But I guess it really is different when you kill a human being.'

He paused and shrugged. 'Well, except for when I killed that burly pervert right when I was transmigrated here... That one I don't regret at all.'

Shaking his head, Felix dismissed the past thoughts that he had sworn he wouldn't think of as he concluded.

'So basically, the problem lies with my addiction or this craving that I have for skill points that I don't even consider the human lives that I'm taking....'

He recalled when he faced the enemies from the six guilds who had trapped Miss Elsa and the others, and when he had later trapped the enemies instead in the sinkholes and killed them off one by one.

Back then, his mind was fixated entirely on harvesting the skill points.

The attacks on his guildmates were barely registered in his mind, and the enemies' lives didn't matter at all, only the rewards they could provide were enough.

'Even those guys, our enemies from the six guilds, I'm having second thoughts about killing them now.'

Felix glanced at the traitor group's members who were keeping guard on both sides of their procession.

'People like Warren, Nicole, Paul... I could be killing people like them without a second thought just because they're following orders of the higher-ups, while they'd be clueless about the secret dealings between their guilds and the dark guilds. Not even realising the reason they're fighting these guild wars for.'

As he pondered these things more carefully, Felix reached a thought that unsettled his mind.

'Was I wrong? Should I not have killed them? It's not like they committed a crime worthy of a death sentence, right?'

He began to question his actions, were they right or wrong? Was he straying down the wrong path, or was this simply the way this world worked....

'What should I do....', he frowned and sighed again, before turning to the side where a green-haired boy was closely watching him in worry.

"Oh, Steve... I was just...", he stuttered.

"Don't think too much, Felix.", Steve said in a low voice, a bitter smile on his face. "Thinking too much never makes you happy."

".....hmm.", Felix just nodded, turning his head back forward where the people at the front had stopped.

The entire group then stopped in their tracks too, realising they had arrived back at their previous spot.

"We're at the intersection.", Keliot announced from the front and decisively ordered with a serious face.

"The group will be divided into two here. The heavily injured and some from Nicole's group will go back to the base along with the four bodies. The rest will stay here with me to ensure the safe return of the other two patrolling groups."

He looked at everyone's reactions and stated before anyone could raise their voice.

"That's the final decision. I won't tolerate any objections."

After going through so many battles and facing such difficulties with even deaths, the members of these two patrolling groups wanted nothing more than to return to the base to rest.

But orders were orders, which they couldn't go against as that would put them in a more difficult situation with meaningless problems.

Keliot knew he was pushing them to their limits, he himself was no better off, but as an executive of his guild, he could neither show weakness nor neglect his duty.

The only thing he could do was not pressure them and choose to at least give them a choice.

"Sigh...Fine. I won't force any of you, but I'd be glad to have some guys remain with me here just in case the others require our aid."

Most of the people let out a sigh of relief, while a man slowly limped forward.

"I'll stay back with you, Keliot. I need to make up for this setback, which was all because of my incompetence."

Keliot glanced at the injured man who spoke and frowned slightly.

"Morris... You can't-"

"Don't.", Morris raised his hand and stopped Keliot, his expression hard and resolved.

"I must do this. Otherwise I won't be able to show my face to anyone back at the base."

His words made everyone look at him intently, the atmosphere turning suffocating as the man named Morris was going to do whatever it took for him to get back the courage and honour he had lost.

"Very well, you can stay.", Keliot nodded after pondering for a moment and then turned to the others. "Who else?"

Felix moved forward this time before anyone else, his posture confident and tall.

"I'm gonna stay."

Keliot looked at the boy who was in his group and recalled his strength that he had displayed, while Steve and the group stared at Felix in exasperation.

Roven sighed as he rubbed his forehead and moved ahead to stand beside Felix.

"Me too."

Steve looked at his two teammates and grabbed Eric's clothes before stepping up too along with him. "That makes the four of us then."

"Wait- Why me too-", Eric tried pulling off, but seeing that everyone was staring at them, he could only grumble weakly with a sour face.

"...shit.. I wanted to just go rest..."

Keliot gave a small smile at the enthusiastic response, but then more people stepped forward which made him almost break character.

"I want to stay too.", Selena tightened her fists and glanced at Felix and his team with a challenging look in her eyes.

"Me too. I'm not that tired really.", Warren muttered as he peeked curiously at Steve.

Nicole glanced briefly at Warren before he gave Paul a nod.

"I'm gonna stay. Paul alone will be enough to lead the group."

In addition to them, a few others agreed to stay behind at the intersection, making Keliot truly break out of his character as he faked a cough to cover it up.

"Very good! I mean.... Ahem..Ahem... very good. It would be great to have you guys here with me."

With the decision set, Keliot gave a few orders to the people going back to the base, especially to Paul who was the only Rank 3 in their group.

The people who'd return to the base numbered more than thirty, while a dozen were being left behind at the intersection.

"Alright then. We'll be back later. Be careful on your way back.", Keliot, Felix and the others bid the others a temporary goodbye.

"You guys too. Watch out for any sudden ambushes and sneak attacks.", Paul warned, to which Keliot smiled and patted Felix's shoulder who was beside him.

"Don't worry, we've got this guy here. He knows the way around here like the back of his hand. Nothing's catching is off guard with him in the group."

He didn't forget the many times Felix had been useful with his weird earth attribute spells that would let him know about their surroundings.

Hearing Keliot's words, Felix thought back to his map skill that he hadn't used for a while now as he was busy overthinking from the deaths of his guildmates.

'Let me take a quick look to check if there's anything wrong....'

He opened up the map screen's display as Paul and the group turned to leave.

Turning his head down, Felix's ruby red eyes widened in shock at what he was seeing.

"THE FUCK!!?"