The Reminiscence of a Psychopath

As we did not have any horses, bringing back the wounded was an arduous task. But no horse could walk properly in the tangle of roots, rocks, and trees that barred any Calvery from entering the cursed forest.

It took the rest of the day to de-tangle usable weapons and armor from the corpses of fellow soldiers, and it would take even more manpower to bring them back again.

Looking at my system again I was now on level 12. But I felt I was much stronger than the braindead Starvire because I knew how to fight, and they clumsily swung around, fear being its worst weapon.

From our platoon of five hundred, four hundred remained. The paralysis of fear was no joke in situations where one couldn't laugh.

Remembering the notification, I found a small bone dagger strapped to my waist. I unsheathed it and tested the blade. I had barely touched it with my finger when a small cut appeared, and a drop of blood leaked out.

It was razor-sharp, well, considering it was made from the teeth of a Starvire, its sharpness was no surprise. This was a nice present, maybe the first present I had received in a long time.

I spun around as footsteps neared me. "Mr. Raidriar, the Duke has called for your presence," a pale boy chirped. Nodding, I followed him toward the biggest tent in the campsite. It had the sign of the House of Irithyll etched in black and white over the front flaps.

The crest was a knight's sword with a dragon wrapping around it, resting on the hilt. I ducked beneath the cream-colored canvas and entered into the cool quarters of the Duke.

"Ah, there you are, welcome, welcome," the kind, husky voice of the Duke boomed in my ears.

I didn't know what to do, so I did a ninety-degree bow and said, "Your Grace."

He laughed and said, "A simple salute will do; I called you here because of your performance during the last battle." I saluted and stood still, listening with both my eyes and ears.

"I have to admit that your skills go beyond a regular foot soldier; I want to send you and your squad on a mission with a few other squads to go deeper into the forest. What say you?"

[Quest: Complete Duke's Mission +1 levels]

My voice rang out clear and sharp. "I accept."

The Duke looked as if he wanted to crack a joke but decided not to, "It is a confidential mission, so I hope you will not speak of this to anyone."

I nodded, and after waiting for a few heartbeats, the Duke dismissed me and, saluting again, backed out.

Maybe I had done too much, for as soon as I exited the tent, I heard laughter from inside, but it wasn't a mean laugh, so I felt that I had raised no red flags.

Heading back to the tent I shared with my comrades, I felt that I would have much more legroom now that one of the squad had departed. Both Jack and Peter were a little teary-eyed at the empty space that now permeated the small tent.

I blinked at them and walked out; I didn't go too far from the tent this time because of my impatience to try out the new strength I had gained from the two level-ups.

Smashing my fist into a tree, my hand went straight through, even without using wind or hardening magic.

I felt eyes burrow into the back of my head and, pretending to be tired, sat down under the tree. To my relief, it was only my two squad mates who were even more teary-eyed than before and looked at me with sadness.

I slightly felt that I had been misunderstood.

I was right, for out of earshot to me. Jack was saying, "I thought Nathan's death didn't affect Raidriar at all; I even thought him a bit cruel…

But look how soft the poor boy is.

He is so angry he punched straight through a tree and is now crying sadly…" Peter answered with a sob, "We should give him some time, let's go eat."

Back to my mulling over how to get stronger, Jam materialized from the tree branch overhead and sat comfortably in my hair. I looked up into her pretty purple eyes and said, "Do you know how I can learn how to kick properly?"

She waggled her butt and said, "That's easy, I learned how to kick in my hometown! Here, I'll show you one of the kicks we are notorious for."

Hopping down from my head, she landed on my knee and kicked a chicken leg out with some force.

I blinked; it was a comical sight because she had no knees, and her legs waggled around like it was broken.

". . . that's wonderful, but I don't think that will help me much…"

She cocked her head at me and shook it at me in disbelief, "after I did such a beautiful demonstration too! You really are untalented."

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry; what a proud bird.

"Ca! I know. Learn through this," Jam hopped onto a nearby rock and, using her wind magic, started spinning dirt into a human's shape.

I was quite impressed by the precision and detail with which she could make the shape move. The figure leaned back and kicked.

"This is the push kick. This one is the side-kick, and this is the roundhouse kick; she explained the different methods and how each was accomplished.

All I needed to do was imitate the tiny whirlwind of dirt, and she would correct my form as she had seen others do. After a couple of hours, the system rang.

[Ding! Learn basic kicking forms yes/no]

Happily, I accepted and felt my understanding of the ins and outs of kicking click in my brain. I had to use my hips to swing, not just my leg. The amount of power difference the right stance made was enormous.

First, bringing my knee up and then snapping it into a kick was a lot better than trying to do the kick in one motion.

Breaking it up into two actions made perfecting each kick better because I would always be holding myself in the proper stance.

Jam then started to drop acorns and other rocks she found on the ground from up high, and I would practice kicking them.

At first, my timing was a bit faulty, and I missed a lot, but after a couple of hours, I sweat-drenched my shirt, making it stick to my skin; the breezeless did not help in the matter as all was still.

I thought for a moment, and focusing on my wind magic, I created a soft pillar of air that tried my sweat and blew my clothes dry. It seems that I can upgrade my magic, so using it a lot would be helpful to use it a lot.

However, I could only use both of my magic skills for around an hour before I would black out.

I needed to use it sparingly.

The next morning, just as the light was coming over the tops of the billowing trees, my team and I were taken up with four other teams and headed into the forest.

On the way, we were told that this was a special test to prove our squads worthy of a promotion.

Our squad was the only one out of the new recruits.

All the rest were from more experienced and battle-hardened teams. The glares of the other teams made my team wary. It seemed like this was a rivalry and a show of skill more than anything.

I wondered why the Duke specifically took my team. Was my performance really as good as that of experienced veterans?

On the way to our destination, we were told that this was an expedition to find a leaf called Elysium. It was a herb that could grant longevity and had healing properties as well. It was a vibrant green plant adorned with small, delicate white flowers.

The pure qualities of the herb were contrasted by the place it grew. These plants were only found in monster territories' darkest and vilest places.

Maudit Mountain was a place where it was known to grow, and with the recent outbreak of monsters, it was almost a hundred percent certain that it could be found on its dark cliffs.

Deeper and deeper, we traversed through the silent trees; no bush stirred or bird sang. Suddenly, from a cluster of oaks, Starvire's attacked, with outstretched angry claws, they attempted to nab the closest man. Before they even got to our team, the monsters were quickly dealt with.

The power of skillful soldiers was a sight to behold. Again, I questioned the Duke's decision for us to go.

Hours passed as our party trekked through the forest, dealing with an abundance of creatures along the way.

Finally, I saw our goal. Atop a sheer black cliff stood a cluster of Elysiums.

They were not difficult to spot because of their white light against the darkness around them. It was a high cliff; even if I stacked myself eight times, I still wouldn't reach the top.

Wondering what would happen now, I noticed that all eyes had turned to our squad. The leader of the party called out, saying, "We did all the work so far; now it's your turn."

They were throwing the most arduous job on us.

I knew for one that Jack would have a great amount of trouble scaling a cliff of that height and sheerness.

So, I nodded to both of my teammates and started to climb alone. It wasn't all that difficult; my strength from leveling up made my body control pretty good.

My feet found even the smallest of crevices and dug into the rock as I pulled myself higher and higher.

After what felt like forever, I grasped the crust of the cliff and did a muscle up to safety. Breathing a sigh of relief, I swiped off the perspiration that had started to drip off my face.

What I had not noticed before was thousands of mushrooms surrounding the shining flowers. They started to tremble and shake.

Before I could grab hold of the flowers, large mushrooms shot up around them and blocked my hands. I watched, shocked, as the mushrooms began to tangle together and grow bigger and bigger at an alarming speed.

A few seconds after I reached the top, a giant mushroom with large wood-like arms and legs stood before me. There was no place to fit for the tiny ledge that the flowers grew on, which was only a few feet wide.

It had a stable footing as its roots were grounded on the side of the cliff, and we stood staring at each other. I blinked and edged my hand closer again, reaching for the flowers.

Only then did it give a loud shriek and reached out a hand to stop me, but I drew back, and it stopped in mid-air and went back to guarding the flower.

I felt like I was seeing a mother hen protecting her young, only when harm came to her nest did she attack.

At that moment, I heard a whistling sound behind my head and ducked.

A flaming arrow swiveled past me and landed in the soft meat of the mushroom, causing a terrible sound to fly from the giant mushroom.

Fire-red and hot, it began eating at the very flammable fibers of the mushroom.

It swayed as the mushrooms around me began to spasm and grow bigger and smaller.

Then the fire reached the roots, and the mushroom, unable to help itself, hurtled down to the earth. As it fell, as if in slow motion, my eyes connected with its own beady ones, and it seemed to hold a great amount of sadness.

For something so big, it sure went down easy.

Or so I thought.