I Killed the Hero and Took His Achievements-Chapter 2: Kill Stealing For Dummies
CRASH.
The Void Spider landed in the center of the plaza like a meteorite made of nightmares. It has eight legs. Each one was the size of a telephone pole, with obsidian scythes at the tip. Its carapace was a swirling abyss of purple mana. Its eyes were clusters of red hate.
[Boss Monster: Void Spider (Tutorial Variant)]
[Level: 50]1
[Status: Hungry.]
SPLAT.
The Mayor who was a fat man who had just been giving a speech about "prosperity" popped miserably like a water balloon. One of the spider’s legs impaled him miserably, drove him into the stone, and reduced him to a scattered meat that smeared the stone.
"SCREEEE!" The Spider shrieked. A deafening sound that almost ruptured everyone’s eardrums.
Chaos, the situation was in utter chaos.
"Run!"
"My leg! My leg is gone!"
"Where are the Knights?! Save us!"
The crowd of thousands panicked chaotically. Peasants trampled nobles. Nobles shoved children into the path of the monster to buy themselves a chance to survive.
But I stood still completely. Arthur’s warm corpse was still under my foot. I took a deep breath. The smell I smelled was of the smell of opportunity.
In the original life, this Spider ate 400 people. It was eventually driven off by the Royal Knights, but it was after it crippled half the village. Arthur had pissed his pants and was hiding behind a fountain.
————————————————————
I checked my stats.
[Name: Cain Cross]
[Level: 1]
[Class: None]
[MP: 10/10]
[Strength: 3 (Malnourished)]
I was trash, even a stiff breeze could end me, but I had something far better than mere stats. I had the Golden Finger.
"System," I muttered, my voice was drowned out by the screams of the dying. "Filter targets. Range: 10 meters. Priority: Skills."
A blue grid overlayed over my vision. I saw the Knights rushing in. Specifically, I saw Sir Gowan, the Captain of the local garrison. A Silver-Rank warrior. He charged the Spider, his sword glowing with white energy.
"Hold the line!" Gowan roared resoundingly. "Protect the youths!" He swung his sword.
[Skill: Heavy Slash (C-Rank)] activated.
A blade of light cut into the Spider’s leg, chipping the armor.
The Spider hissed and flipped back in response.
He landed right next to me. He didn’t notice Arthur’s corpse. He was too busy trying not to die. "Boy!" Gowan shouted at me while spitting blood. "Get to the shelter! Move your ass over!"
I looked at him and his glowing sword.
"Sir Gowan," I said mockingly while stepping into his personal space. "Big fan." I reached out my Right Hand intentionally touching the skill.
[Activation: The Usurper (Touch).]
Blue mist exploded from my fingertips. It looked like liquid starlight.
[System Alert.]
[Skill Copied: ’Heavy Slash’ (C-Rank).]
[Skill Copied: ’Combat Step’ (D-Rank).]
"What the..." Gowan shook his head, stumbling. "Why do I feel... weird?"
"Adrenaline, sir," I lied smoothly. "Go get it." I pushed him back toward the monster.
Gowan shook it off like nothing had happened. He then charged back into the battle. He didn’t know that I just pirated his life’s work. He still had the skills, but I had the cracked version.
Now for the main event. I turned to the Spider. The Royal Knights were surrounding it. They were doing good damage.
The "Tutorial Variant" meant the boss had 50% reduced HP and Defense. It was meant to be a scare tactic by the System.
The Knights were whittling it down.
[Boss HP: 75%]
[Boss HP: 60%]
I waited patiently. I then moved through the chaos like a ghost.
A noblewoman suddenly tripped in front of me while clutching a bag of jewels. "Help me!" she screamed blatantly while reaching up to me. "I’ll give you gold!"
The Spider suddenly sprayed a jet of acidic webbing. It hit the woman. She melted miserably and agonizingly. I mean literally, her skin sloughed off her bones like a wet paper. She screamed for three seconds, gargled, then dissolved into a puddle of sizzling goo.
I stepped over the puddle. I didn’t even look down to look at her. I kept my eyes on the HP bar.
[Boss HP: 20%]
The Spider was enraged, it entered stage 2. "HISS!" It spun, unleashing a shockwave. Four Knights were decapitated miserably. Their heads flew into the crowd like soccer balls.
Sir Gowan was knocked back, his shield shattered. "It’s too strong!" Gowan screamed resoundingly. "Retreat! We need the Mages!"
The line of the knights broke out clumsily. The Spider squealed as if it won the battle. It was severely wounded, a green blood leaked from a dozen cuts.
[Boss HP: 5%] It was drooping over. That was when I realized it was a perfect time to act. "My turn," I whispered. I triggered the stolen skill that I had just acquired.
[Skill: Combat Step.] Whoosh. My mana bar fell by 2 points. I dashed toward it. To the naked eye, I was a blur.
But I closed the distance from the spider in a heartbeat. The spider was distracted. It focused on the fleeing knights, and didn’t see the Level 1 guy currently sprinting toward its blind spot.
I wasn’t aiming for its legs nor its head. I had cleaned dungeon corpses for twenty years. Therefore, I already knew some monsters’ anatomy better than anyone. I aimed for the Spiracle; the tiny breathing vent under the thorax. It’s the only spot without armor.
I gripped my rusted knife. I pumped my remaining mana into an offense skill.
[Skill: Heavy Slash.]
The rusty dagger glowed with a pathetic, flickering white light. It was barely a glow blade. But it was enough. I slid under the massive, hairy abdomen. The smell was horrible. "Open wide," I grinned viciously.
THRUST.
I drove the knife upward. It sank into the soft, hitting flesh of the vent. The Spider froze. It was like sticking a fork into a toaster.
CRITICAL HIT!
[Fatal Strike!]
The monster convulsed. It tried to scream, but I had punctured its lung sac. It collapsed down. Tons of chitin and muscle came crashing down. I rolled away, using the last bit of stamina.
BOOM.
The Spider hit the pavement, no longer alive. Silence returned to the square. Dust swirled. The surviving Knights just stared.
The crowd peaked out from their hiding spots. They then saw a boy who was covered in blood while holding a bent, rusty knife standing over a corpse of the size of a house.
"Did he..."
"Did that trash boy just..."
I ignored them all. I walked up to the Spider’s head. My Left Hand began to glow. It was not blue, but Red. It was the color of pure blood and greed.
[Trait: The Usurper (Kill) Activated.]
I placed my hand on the Spider’s massive, many-eyed face. "Mine."
[System Notification]
[You have slain the Level 50 Boss: Void Spider.]
[Level Difference: 49.]
[Experience Multiplier: x5000%]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
...
[You are now Level 15.]
The rush of power was orgasmic. My bones density increased. My mana circuits forcefully expanded. It felt like injecting pure caffeine into my veins. But I wasn’t done.
[Target Dead. Harvesting Talent...]
[Harvesting Stats...]
I felt the Spider’s essence being ripped out of its corpse. A stream of red energy flowed into my arm.
[Stats Absorbed:]
[+20 Agility]
[+15 Strength]
[Talent Acquired: ’Web Weaver’ (B-Rank).]
(Allows creation and manipulation of mana threads).
Garbage. I’ll fuse it later.
Now... for the Real Prize. In the normal setting, drop rates are 0.01%. Legendary items? 0.00001%. People spent their whole lives farming for a chance at a Rare item. I looked at my SSS-Trait. [100% Drop Rate.] I kicked the corpse.
PING! PING! PING! PING! The sound of loot dropping was like a slot machine hitting the jackpot in heaven. Golden light erupted from the body. A pillar of orange, gold, and purple text blinded everyone in the square.
[Item Obtained: Void Fang Dagger (Epic)]
[Item Obtained: Carapace Armor of the Night (Rare)]
[Item Obtained: Skill Book ’Venom Spit’]
[Item Obtained: Skill Book ’Shadow Walk’]
[Item Obtained: Void Core (Legendary Material)]
[Item Obtained: 5,000 Gold Coins]
Items cascaded onto the pavement. It was a mountain of wealth. A king’s ransom. The crowd gasped.
"Gold! Look at the gold!"
"Is that... is that an Epic Weapon?!"
Greed appeared in public eyes. The fear was gone but it was replaced by the primitive urge to get the items.
Sir Gowan stepped forward, his eyes locked on the Void Fang Dagger. "Citizen!" Gowan barked. He was trying to sound authoritative despite his injuries. "Step away from the monster! That is Guild Property! The Knights weakened it, you just landed the final blow! By law, the loot belongs to the Crown!"
I picked up the Void Fang Dagger. It was beautiful. Curved obsidian, dripping with purple smoke.
[Attack: 450]
[Effect: Ignores 50% Armor.]
I swung it. The air whistled. "Guild Property huh?" I repeated, my voice was exceedingly calm. I turned to face the Knight. I let my Killing Intent; honed by twenty years of torture leak out.
The air temperature dropped ten degrees. "I killed it," I said. "So, it makes sense if I loot it." I pointed the dagger at the crowd, at the Knights, at the world. "If you want it..." I smiled uncannily. It was jagged, a feral grin that made the Knight to take a step back. "Come and get for it."
Gowan hesitated. He looked at the dagger then he looked at my eyes. He saw something there. Maybe he saw me like a Predator. But before he could answer, the System Screen glitched out. It turned Red out of sudden.
[World Announcement]
[First Blood Achievement Unlocked.]
[Player Cain has killed Level 50 Tutorial Boss in under 5 minutes for the first time in history.]
[Reward distributing...]
A chest fell from the sky instantly. It wasn’t wood nor gold, but it was made of black bone, pulsating with a heartbeat dub-lub. THUD. It landed in front of me. The energy radiating from it cracked the pavement surrounded it.
[System Warning: Item Grade exceeds the planet limits.]
[Item Grade: ???]
Everyone froze there. Even the Knights stopped breathing.
A ??? Drop. I reached for the lid.
Out of the blue, Gowan drew his sword and said, "Stop! In the name of the King, I order you to—"
I opened the chest. Shadows exploded outward, swallowing the light of the sun like a black hole. From the darkness, a voice; very soft, feminine, and terrifyingly amusing whispered into my ear. "Finally, someone interesting."
It was level 25. The later paragraph will explain it.
