ROTLE- Chapter 31- The Cave III (Patreon)

Even though Elaswit had agreed to have the first strike, she did not attack.

With her massive cleaver as long as any long sword and larger than any cleaver held out in front of her with both hands, she slowly inched backwards, increasing the distance between her and the gargoyle.

Aiden followed her, waiting for what she wanted to do. More importantly, he confirmed something that had been on his mind with the indicator above the gargoyle’s head.

[Gargoyle Lvl 28]

It was high compared to his level, but low compared to what he had expected.

I guess that answers that question.

In his past life, he’d never learned of a gargoyle less than forty-two levels. But here was one with a significantly lower level than forty-two. Aiden was willing to bet this had been the breeding grounds for the gargoyles long before the war.

But the numbers weren’t adding up.

The gargoyles had been in the thousands. It was hard to believe that they’d all somehow holed themselves up inside this cave.

The cave was large, but it wasn’t that large.

So how had they all been bred? The answer came to Aiden even as the question popped up. This wasn’t the only part of the world where the gargoyles had been hiding and waiting. There hadn’t been only one group of ambitious gargoyles.

Aiden kept his eye on the gargoyle as he backed up and it stepped forward.

“You can manage or Valdan taught you how to fight with a partner?” Elaswit asked.

Valdan had taught Aiden nothing about team fights.

“I’ll manage,” he answered.

Just to be sure, he took a glance at her cleaver. He was satisfied to find the weapon steady and unwavering. As unkind or arrogant as it might have seemed, he had really needed to confirm that the princess wasn’t in anyway terrified.

You could always fancy yourself as someone who stood strong in the face of adversity until you met certain types of adversity.

Elaswit could easily have found herself terrified of the idea of fighting an actual demon from the scriptures.

“You go high I go low?” Aiden asked, hoping to push the attack forward.

For all they knew, other gargoyles could be headed this way. Aiden didn’t know Elaswit’s level but the last thing he needed was to be caught in a battle with a group of gargoyles with levels in the twenties.

Elaswit shook her head. “We’ll use the switch strategy. It’ll give you time to catch your breath during the fight.”

Aiden thought about it then shrugged. “Sure.”

“Good.”

Aiden noticed that she was still stepping back.

“Gargoyles are also nocturnal,” he said, in case she wanted to lure it into some place without light. “They see clearly in the light and the dark.”

Elaswit’s steps paused. “Oh.”

“Yeah. ‘Oh’ is right. So how about we deal with it before any of its friends come sniffing around?”

Elaswit nodded. “Yeah.”

Then she burst forward.

Aiden recognized an active [Dash] skill when he saw it. It carried Elaswit forward, crossing the distance in the blink of an eye, and she met the gargoyle with a massive downward swing.

Aiden winced in anticipation of the sound her weapon crashing into the ground would make when her attack was inevitably dodged and was surprised when it didn’t come.

The gargoyle had darted away from her attack very easily, but her blade never met the ground. For her weapon’s size and her lack of size in comparison, she stopped her swing before it hit the ground a little too easily, then made a frustrated sound.

The gargoyle darted back into the fray, clawed feet swiping at Elaswit. Aiden noticed a slight hesitation as if she was not expecting the attack before she raised her cleaver to defend herself.

Damn it, Aiden swore as the gargoyle refused to relent, keeping her on the backfoot.

He squatted quickly, placed his sword on the ground. He’d been practicing how to weave his enchantments while holding weapons but so far he only had the success of a man writing with his weaker hand, which was hilarious since he was ambidextrous.

Class skill [Enchanted Weave] is in effect.

You have used [Lesser Weave of Strength]

Effect: +18% increase in strength.

Duration: 00:05:30.

Aiden picked his sword as Elaswit was beginning to get pushed back and darted into the fray.

“Switch!” he shouted.

If she could’ve backed off without any issues, she would’ve. But Aiden wasn’t expecting her to. The call was how the switch strategy worked. One of the members of the duo called out the switch and they switched places.

Aiden darted past Elaswit and swung a vicious slash at the gargoyle. His blade cut through air as it hopped on Elaswit’s massive cleaver and used it to propel itself away.

“I didn’t expect—”

Whatever else Elaswit had to say died in her throat as Aiden simply followed after the gargoyle.

He closed the distance it made almost immediately, and struck once more. He stabbed at its head and it weaved to one side, avoiding the blow. Aiden swung his leg in a kick, refusing to let up the attack.

The gargoyle avoided again, darting to the side.

Aiden expected it. In fact, he had been waiting for it.

The moment the creature’s feet left the ground, [Dash] was already carrying Aiden across the distance.

Gargoyles weren’t quick attackers, but they had quick reaction time. In a head on fight with a gargoyle, like most animals in the wild most accustomed to fleeing, you didn’t aim for where it was. You aimed for where it was going to be.

Aiden’s sword came down on the creature in a downward overhead swing as both of them came to a stop in the same position almost at the same time. It raised a grey limb to take the strike and Aiden’s blade clashed harmlessly with its grey skin.

Then he spun and kicked it in the head.

“Switch!” he called out as the gargoyle staggered away, shaking its head.

Aiden stepped back but instead of Elaswit bounding past him, a slash of red mana cut through the air in an arc and struck the gargoyle.

It sent the creature flying back but not too far.

Elaswit stepped up next to Aiden with a surprised frown.

“It withstood that?” she asked, confused. “It’s not supposed to be able to withstand that, not at its level.”

In front of them, the gargoyle picked itself from the ground. Nothing had changed about the creature except a crack that currently ran up its neck.

“I aimed for the head,” Elaswit said in retained surprise. “I always aim for the head.”

“Is that why you didn’t follow up?” Aiden asked. “Because you taught that was enough to kill it.”

Elaswit pointed at the gargoyle as if there was something there that Aiden wasn’t seeing or understanding.

“It’s just level 28,” she complained. “I’ve put down a level forty with that skill before.”

The statement gave Aiden a moment of hesitation. If she’d put down a level forty with the skill before, did that make her above level forty or was the skill simply that powerful?

There’s also a chance that she’s lying.

Aiden found himself compelled to discard the thought. There was no reason for her to lie about that in this moment.

So why was he quick to assume she was lying? Was it some lost ego that made him refuse to believe someone as young as her was significantly more powerful than him?

It’s because liars always assume everyone is lying. The words crawled into his mind, mocking. And you are a liar.

Aiden shook his monologue or, in this case, self dialogue.

“It doesn’t matter,” he told her. “What matters is that now we know its got high durability and defense. We can work accordingly.”

“Yes.”

Elaswit held her blade down and to the side now. She had an expression Aiden didn’t like on her face. She looked as if her domain was strength and the gargoyle had just challenged her to a test of strength.

Aiden didn’t like it one bit.

He didn’t doubt that she could overpower the creature, but overpowering a gargoyle was just a waste of strength. There were far easier ways to kill them, after all.

Elaswit charged the gargoyle and Aiden followed after her.

Elaswit and the gargoyle met in a flurry of blows. She swung her massive cleaver and the gargoyle met her each time with a swipe of one clawed feet or the other. The sound that echoed through the cave was of sword against stone and it grew with each blow as Elaswit put more and more of her strength into each attack.

Aiden moved past the both of them, allowing Elaswit struggle to prove herself the stronger of the two. He kept his attention on the both of them, making sure he always remained close enough as he made his way to the corner the gargoyle had come from as quickly as he could.

He came to a stop there and peeked around it. The view that met him relaxed one of his worries.

The path was clear, empty. It was a good thing. Since the beginning of the fight, he’d been worried that a group of gargoyles would ambush them. With only two roads to this place, the likelihood of that happening had been dwindled to a number too close to zero for zero’s comfort.

Which meant…

I can teach her how to fight it.

That was always the best option. The scriptures had no take on how to defeat the gargoyles to the best of Aiden’s knowledge, which was quite limited, so him suddenly attacking its weak point and killing it would raise a lot of unanswerable questions.

The question was how he was going to teach her without teaching her.

I could just accidentally kill it myself, though.

It was the simplest answer.

“Switch!”

Like a man who’d been a soldier for too long responding to a command out of nowhere, Aiden was already charging in with his sword held forward.

He charged from behind the gargoyle as Elaswit leapt back and away from the creature. There was a frown on her face that told Aiden that she had failed to overpower the creature.

The gargoyle turned immediately, reaction speed as superior as ever, and dived Aiden without hesitation.

Unwilling to meet it in a test of strength, he ducked to the side, rolled to the ground and came up to his feet. [Dash] carried him to the beast the moment he was back on his feet and his sword was already singing through the air.

He dipped into one of many variations of the Order’s sword technique. It was designed to face four legged creatures, to sever limbs and disembowel.

Three strikes were parried by the gargoyle. A fourth was dodged while the fifth took it in the mouth. Aiden’s hand shook from the impact of the tip of his sword clashing with the insides of the creature’s mouth.

It’s stone-like skin seemed to extend even to its insides.

Aiden backed away and charged forth once more. He threw a feint to one side then came up with a vicious kick that brushed the gargoyle’s front limbs out from under it as it avoided his feint.

The creature fell face first into the ground, its rump held up by its two standing hind legs. Aiden winced from the pain in his leg but ignored it for the most part. In an action he would normally never be caught doing, he brought his sword down on the gargoyle’s neck in a powerful overhead strike.

Blade clanged as if he’d struck a boulder. The sword trembled and Aiden grit his teeth against the discomfort that went through his entire body.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t know it would fail.

“Switch!” he called out, darting to the side to give Elaswit the space she required.

Again, a blast of red man cut through the air once more. It cut past Aiden and struck the gargoyle. The beast bent itself forward and took the strike against the top of its head.

Aiden almost frowned at the repeated action. His frown paused as Elaswit charged past him, cleaver swinging like a butcher more than happy to test her mettle against a piece of bone she’d just been told she couldn’t cut through.

The effects of Aiden’s weaving of strength was still flowing through him and he used it as a timer. It was funny how they hadn’t even fought for up to five minutes.

Elaswit attacked the creature in angry looking swings and the creature parried were it could and evaded were it could. Apart from the one time at the beginning of the fight, they had kept the creature on the defensive ever since.

Elaswit turned a slash into a defensive stance and rammed the gargoyle with the flat of her sword.

“Switch!” Aiden called out as the creature was disoriented, staggering away from her.

Without waiting for Elaswit to step out of the way, he propelled himself with all the strength in his leg and leapt over her. He crossed eight feet with the single jump.

You have learned [Leap (Mastery 02.01%)]

He discarded the notification as he landed on the gargoyle with a falling kick. The creature met his kick with its shoulder and pain ran through Aiden’s leg. Still, the force of the blow was enough to bring its head down to the ground once more.

Sucking in a sharp breath from the pain, Aiden turned, pivoting on his good leg, and drew an upward slash into the creature’s second shoulder. The blow shook the creature and sent it bounding to the side.

At this point, they were practically bullying the poor beast, not that Aiden cared.

The gargoyle shook its head, disoriented and Aiden was already following after it. To his surprise, rather than prepare for an evasion, it raised its head and opened its mouth.

It was a move Aiden knew. A move that rendered most of its body exposed.

“No, you don’t,” Aiden muttered.

He felt mana course through him the way it always did when combined foundational skills that were no longer visible in the user’s skill list activated, and [Dash] helped him cross the entire distance in one step.

He appeared above the beast and dug his sword into its mouth. The discomfort startled the gargoyle as Aiden’s feet hit the ground, tilting its head downwards. Then Aiden pushed upwards, forced the gargoyle’s head back so that its front legs were lifted with it and were no longer touching the ground.

“Can’t have you calling your friends now,” Aiden said as he struggled to keep its head up.

Then he switched to a variation of the Order’s unarmed combat. Releasing his sword, he grabbed one of its front legs, turned the beast to the side, leaned down, and clipped one of its back legs with his foot. It looked like a complicated and loose variation of a judo leg sweep.

The end result was a loud thud that shook the ground as he brought the massive beast bodily to the ground.

But Aiden wasn’t done. He acted quickly, grabbed the hilt of his sword and drove the rest of the blade into the gargoyle’s mouth until only the hilt was visible.

“Switch!” he called, abandoning his sword to the creature’s mouth once more.

This time, he didn’t distance himself from the thing. He merely stood to the side. To no surprise at all, an arc of red mana blasted into the beast’s underbelly. In its wake was a web of cracks.

Elaswit’s cleaver came down on the crack immediately after with enough force to displace the air and shake the beast. If the place wasn’t so moist, Aiden was certain the action would’ve raised a lot of dust.

The gargoyle continued to struggle on the ground but was having difficulty turning itself upright. It gagged a few times in a failed attempt to make a different sound as Elaswit stepped away from it with a confused look.

 “This type of creature shouldn’t exist,” she said, annoyed.

Aiden almost scoffed.

There were a lot of creatures not indigenous to Nastild’s human side of the world that shouldn’t exist.

The rock golems had a bee as tall as two men with wings lighter than tissue paper that could fly significantly faster than any car. And magic had nothing to do with it.

To any human on Nastild, that was a monster that shouldn’t exist.

Elaswit stared at the cracks running along the stomach of the struggling gargoyle.

“A creature with such high durability and defense always has a weakness,” she said. Then she struck its stomach once more with all the force she could muster. Nothing happened. “That weakness is always its underbelly.”

Aiden couldn’t argue with her.

Even dragons had weaker underbelly when compared to their scaly bodies. But that was the thing, their underbellies were only weaker in comparison. Just because it was their weakness, it didn’t mean that any Tom, Dick or Harry could just stroll up to it and stab it expecting to put a hole in it.

If someone like Aiden at his current level tried it, he would find himself with a very poor result. And if he put his back into it, he would find himself with a broken sword.

The gargoyle turned on its side and he kicked it back to struggling on its back. The kick was simple but he’d still had put a significant amount of strength into it to move the creature.

Aiden squinted at the gargoyle in an illusion of thought.

“But it’s got to have some kind of weakness,” he muttered loud enough for the princess to hear. “In your scriptures, they killed it enough times to imply it has a weakness.”

Elaswit paused in thoughts of her own. When she was done, she spun her cleaver as if it was a simple longsword. With the momentum garnered from the twirl of the weapon, she slammed its blade into one of the creature’s hind legs.

Close, but not close enough.

The blade bounced off the leg and a web of hairline cracks spread from where she’d struck it.

“I guess that’s not it,” she mused.

Aiden squatted in front of the gargoyle. It continued to toss its body from side to side, looking for a leverage that would put it comfortably on its side once more, then back on its feet.

Aiden made sure not to get too close so he didn’t suffer a stray slap from one of its claws.

Elaswit stabbed her cleaver into the ground and placed her hands on her hips. “It’s like a neltow.”

Aiden spared a single unnecessary glance at the gargoyle. It looked nothing like a neltow.

“How?” he asked.

“They both struggle the moment you put them on their back.”

Aiden couldn’t argue with that.

A neltow was a large triple horned animal on Nastild. It was as large as a full grown bull and had significant muscles. It was domesticated and was a major source of protein for humans, with almost no fat.

As Elaswit had pointed out, once they were put on their backs, getting up on their own was next to impossible.

“I guess that’s one weakness discovered,” Elaswit pointed out.

“I guess so,” Aiden agreed. Though, he couldn’t call it a weakness.

No. he turned his attention to the hilt of his sword sticking out of its mouth. It isn't a natural weakness.

Elaswit followed his gaze.

“You think it’s having a hard time because of your sword in its mouth,” she said.

It wasn’t a question.

Aiden answered with a simple nod. “I think parts of its upper body that should move internally are being restricted because of the sword. Without the sword, I think it would simply get back on its feet.”

“Which brings us back to square one.” Elaswit sighed. “No weakness.”

There was a weakness. Aiden just needed her to either figure it out, which would be extremely impressive, or cancel out enough options that he could ‘figure’ it out by method of trial and error.

“Actually,” she said after a while, “I’m impressed by the fact that you have enough strength to sweep its feet. You even kicked it a few times, then actually put it on its back. How are you so strong?”

Aiden opened his mouth to reply, then paused.

Brandis didn’t tell her, he realized. If that was the case, then how many people knew for a fact what type of [Weaver] he was?

If his skills weren’t common knowledge, should he keep them a secret? Obviously, the others he was summoned with would find out in a matter of time, Drax, Letto and Anita already knew what he was capable of.

But what of everyone else?

It could be a boon. If you were about to get in a fight and found out that your opponent was a baker while you were a trained warrior, you were bound to let your guard down at some point in time.

It would be too late by the time you find out he’s a baker of death or something sinister like that.

This was something he needed to think about.

“I don’t mean to be rude,” Elaswit was saying. “It’s just that, even though I know you’ve turned a domestic class into something you can use for combat, I don’t know any [Weaver] being that strong.”

Aiden got up and stepped away just in time to avoid a stray claw as the gargoyle somehow got itself on its side.

Elaswit kicked it casually, pushing it back on its back. She made the action look far easier than it had felt when Aiden had done it.

“Also, why did you put your sword in its mouth?” she asked.

So many questions, Aiden thought. It wasn’t a thought of irritation or judgement, merely an observation.

Was she always this talkative?

The princess Elaswit he could remember was known for her poise and decorum, then her calm insanity on the battlefield. Whenever she was deeply disturbed, her face became expressionless. It had been the same way anytime she fought.

Then she’d gained the [Berserker] title at some point in the war and she’d garnered the unique title of [Empty Berserker]. The world had given it to her because of her empty expression in the heat of battle even in her berserk state.

Thinking about it reminded Aiden of how scary opinions actually were on Nastild. On earth, you could ignore the opinion of strangers without consequences. However, on Nastild if enough people developed the same opinion of you, there were actual results.

Titles were one of the magical things on Nastild that actually had a discovered way it worked. And it was as good as it was terrifying.

You didn’t entirely have to be the village fool to gain the title [Village fool].

“Lord Lacheart?”

Aiden pulled himself from his thought to look at Elaswit.

“Am I annoying you?” she asked with an odd expression. It was somewhere between ‘I don’t want to be a nuisance’ and ‘I can’t believe you find me to be a nuisance’.

Aiden shook his head in response. “Not at all, princess. I was merely thinking about a few things.”

“Like what?”

“First, I’ll answer your question. I stabbed it in the mouth because I thought it was going to cry out or make some very loud noise. I didn’t need it drawing other gargoyles to us. We’re already taunting luck by finding it alone and making all the noise we have without drawing other gargoyles to us.”

“They can do that?”

They could.

“I assumed as much,” Aiden answered. “On my home world there are animals that call out to others for help with loud cries. I wasn’t willing to risk it. I was also wondering what other possible weakness it could have.”

He drew his his dagger from its sheath and walked up to the gargoyle’s head.

“Have you considered getting a short sword?” Elaswit offered as he approached the head. “For people who need something to do with their other hand when using the longsword and done want a shield, a short sword is a good compromise. Very useful in fact.”

Aiden had considered it once upon a time. In fact, he’d even had a time in his life when he fought with a short sword and a long sword.

And two daggers. And a spear, he thought as he knelt in front of the gargoyle’s face and placed a hand on its head. Then two short swords. Two falchions, too.

At some point he’d mastered enough weapons decently enough to have a skill for them which eventually combined into the [Weapon Master] advanced skill.

But that was then, and this was now. He still had intentions of gaining the skill once more, though.

With all the strength of what was left of his enchantment flowing through him, he steadied the head of the gargoyle, kept it fixed and stationary.

It stared at him with dull yellow eyes, lightless and dim.

He let out a sigh.

Elaswit leaned to the side so she could look at him. “What are you—”

Aiden stabbed the gargoyle in the eye.

Elaswit turned away in a hurry and gagged in disgust. As for Aiden, he was met with the unsurprisingly dull sound of a knife striking stone.

“That was… wrong,” Elaswit said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

Aiden was pleased to find that Elaswit had only gagged and not vomited. It meant she had a strong tolerance for certain things.

Maybe he would make a temporary team and add her to it.

Or maybe not.

Princesses absconding from their palaces to join someone on an adventure around the world risking her life was the farthest thing from logical. Such things didn’t happen, especially with princesses that had any modicum of sense.

And if they didn’t, there was no member of the royal family that would allow such a thing.

Aiden got up and stepped away from the gargoyle’s head.

“Got any other ideas?” he asked, never taking his eyes away from the gargoyle.

“I don’t know,” Elaswit said, bothered. “If it’s eyes are also that defensively high, I’m beginning to think that none of us are strong enough to kill it.”

“Armors,” Aiden said suddenly.

Elaswit drew a blank. “Armors?”

“Yes,” Aiden said, walking up to the gargoyle’s leg. “Armors. They are powerful, designed to protect the user. In an armor that is not enchanted, what is the one weakness everyone knows?”

“Joints?”

It was a clear answer but she sounded unsure. Aiden wondered if it was because she was not very familiar with armors that lacked any form of magical protection or if she was unsure because she didn’t know if he was looking for another answer.

Regardless, Aiden nodded. “Yes, joints.”

He tackled one of the gargoyle’s legs, moving quickly so that it didn’t swipe at him, and pushed it to the side. Then he drew a line with his dagger at the inside of the knee.

Nothing.

“Nope,” he muttered.

He looked at the point where the limb met the rest of the body at the creature’s underside and drew a line there with the dagger.

The skin gave way too easily and grey blood welled up like wet concrete and the gargoyle released a muffled sound. It seemed his sword was doing a good job of silencing it.

He turned his attention to Elaswit.

“I guess we’ve found a weakness,” he said. “Everything’s got a weakness.”

“The question now is how we kill it with that?”

“Got any good sword in your storage?” Aiden asked.

Elaswit shrugged. “I guess.”

She picked her cleaver from the ground and hooked it behind her back. It didn’t have a scabbard. Then she held her hand out in front of her, palm up.

There was a refraction of light above her hand, like what you would expect from a long line of countless broken shards of mirrors, then a sword appeared in her hold, complete with a well crafted scabbard.

Aiden stepped away from the gargoyle, sheathed his dagger, and walked up to her.

He took it unceremoniously and she cocked a brow at him.

“Thanks,” he said, then turned and faced the gargoyle.

He positioned the sword, held it with one hand and rested the blade on his other hand as if to support his aim.

Then he took a deep breath and activated [Dash].

He blitzed through the distance and plunged his sword into the joint. With his momentum, the sword was buried from point to hilt and blood splashed on him, a deep grey.

Aiden kept his hold, then shoved the sword slightly deeper. Hilt deep.

The gargoyle thrashed under him a little, let out a long violent sound that was muffled and choking. After a moment, it bucked once then fell silent and motionless.

The gargoyle’s skin grew greyer, then a hue of green the color of verdigris began to riddle it. The cracks that had once been hairline fractures turned into actual cracks and grooves.

Before long the gargoyle stiffened and turned statuesque. Aiden slipped the sword out gracefully and stepped away from the monster.

Looking at it now, it looked like a long abandoned broken statue, overgrown with verdigris.

He swung the sword in an arc and the blood splattered on the ground, ridding the blade of blood completely. While this was a way to rid a blade of blood, normal blood would not come off completely like this.

[You have dealt a critical blow!]

[You have dealt a fatal blow!]

Congratulations! You have slain [Gargoyle Level 28].

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Congratulations! You have Leveled Up!]

[Level 14 --> 18]

[You are now Level 18]

Aiden inhaled deeply with the rush of power coursing from his heart and through his body as his level grew.

When it was done, he turned to Elaswit.

“I guess we’ve learnt how to kill them.”

Elaswit had a disturbed look on her face. “I guess so.”

She looked at something else on the ground and Aiden followed her gaze to find that the gargoyle blood he’d discarded to the ground had dried up and now looked like dried concrete.

He didn’t have anything to say to that.

His interface flashed in front of him.

[Achievement unlocked!]

Of all who have dedicated their lives to the protection of Nastild, you alone are the first to wet the grounds with the blood of a true invader in this era.

[You have earned a new title!]

[Protector]

Effect: +10% damage resistance to otherworldly creatures.

…

[Achievement unlocked!]

You have faced adversity and proven yourself to be the first to slay a gargoyle invader in this world.

[You have earned a new title!]

[Stone Guard]

Effect: +10% damage resistance to gargoyle attacks.

Aiden stared down at his interface.

Two titles, he thought.

He hadn’t heard of them before. But it wasn’t very surprising. If he was being honest enough, they weren’t worthy of anything famous. For all he knew, some random guy in his past life could’ve killed an invader, as his interface called them, and gotten the title.

By the simple virtue of being some random guy and the only one that would ever get the title, they could’ve lived the rest of their lives without people noticing the title.

Or they could’ve died in the first real battle.

Aiden almost blanked at how jaded the thought had been. He had once again reminded himself of why he was vastly unlikely to be granted the [Hero] title in this life.

Elaswit was busy staring at the empty space in front of her so Aiden assumed she was either checking something or had gained something from the fight so he took the time to check his personal information.

[Name - Aiden Lacheart]

[Species- Human]

[Age – 19]

[Class- Weaver Lvl 18]

[Class Skill]

[Enchanted Weave (Mastery 18.56%)], [Walking Canvas (Mastery 10.00%)], [Locked (Mastery 0.00%)(U)]

[Affiliation]

[Kingdom of Bandiv].

[Title]

[Goblin Slayer], [Defier], [Protector], [Stone Guard].

[Skill]

[Tongue of the Visitor (Mastery 100%)], [Basic Swordsmanship (Mastery 65.03%)], [Unarmed combat (Mastery 53.00%)], [Resilience (Mastery 98.53%)], [Mana manipulation (Mastery 23.03%)], [Basic Enchant (Mastery 45.04%)], [Dagger-wield (Mastery 19.33%)], [Quiet movement (Mastery 89.00%)], [Light steps (Mastery 99.19%)], [Detect (Mastery 12.03%)], [Leap (Mastery 02..01%)]

[Stats]

[Dexterity 6], [Agility 5], [Mana 7], [Speed 8], [Perception 6], [Strength 3].

[Life]

[Health 100%], [Stamina 81%], [Mana 96 %]

“I got a title,” Elaswit said suddenly.

Aiden dismissed his interface. “Me, too. What did you get?”

“[First line of defense],” she said. “It says I got it for being the first to assist in killing an invader.”

She looked up at him.

“I’m guessing you got something similar, seeing as,” she gestured at the dead gargoyle, “you’re the one that killed the thing.”

Aiden nodded. “I did. I got [Protector]. It grants me ten percent damage resistance to invaders.”

“I got five percent.” Elaswit paused, then frowned. “Isn’t protector a class evolution? I’ve never heard of the title before.”

“Have you heard of yours before?”

Elaswit shook her head.

“Then,” Aiden went on, “would it be safe to say that it’s a title gotten from our very specific situation?”

“If it is,” Elaswit said slowly, “then that means the [Demon King] really is coming.”

Aiden almost laughed.

She had no idea just how wrong she was.

The [Demon King] wasn’t coming. He was already here.

Whoever he is just doesn’t know it yet.