Villain Hiring: Help! Author Wants Me Dead-Chapter 58: Kill
The days had blurred together in a repetitive cycle of travelling, battle, and exhaustion.
The first night after the attack, we had barely gotten any rest.
The wolves had been relentless, their howls echoing through the trees as they stalked us from the shadows.
But we fought, again and again, until their bodies lay scattered across the forest floor.
The second day, we had been forced to move at a grueling pace. The exhaustion weighed on me, but I didn’t stop. Couldn’t stop.
Not when Ma was still recovering, not when we were this deep into unknown territory.
By the third day, we had finally put enough distance between us and whatever else lurked in that cursed forest.
And now—
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A city.
It was still far, barely more than a silhouette against the horizon, but the sight of it sent a flood of relief through me.
"Looks like we made it," I muttered.
Sylvie grandma stood beside me, her arms crossed as she studied the distant walls. Her expression was unreadable, but I could tell she was just as relieved as I was.
She had healed well in the last three days. Not completely—her movements were still slower than usual, and she occasionally pressed a hand against her side when she thought I wasn’t looking—but compared to when we had first escaped that cursed forest, she was stronger.
And me?
I felt better than ever.
The wounds from the battle had healed completely and my body was moving with renewed strength.
Every muscle had adjusted to the endless fights, and my stamina had grown exponentially.
Mana Drain had played a huge part in my recovery.
I had stolen the mana from those monsters to recover my injuries while also recovering my energy without pushing myself too far.
It wasn’t the cleanest way to heal, but I couldn’t afford to be picky.
I flexed my fingers absently, feeling the energy that still thrummed beneath my skin.
Sylvie exhaled heavily beside me. "About damn time."
The road leading up to the city was long, there were patches of dead trees and rocky terrain.
The closer we got, the clearer the walls became—high stone barriers built to keep the wilderness out.
And people.
I could see them now.
Traders moving in and out of the entrance, adventurers returning from their hunts, and guards stationed far away by the massive metal gates of the City.
The sight of normalcy, of civilization, made my chest feel lighter.
But that relief didn’t last long.
Because we weren’t the only ones heading for the city.
A group of people trailed behind us, not too far, but not close enough to be friendly. They had been shadowing us for nearly half an hour now.
Mercenaries, maybe. Or worse.
Ma noticed them too. She didn’t say anything, but the slight shift in her stance told me she was ready for a fight if needed.
We continued walking.
Damien had been pretty quiet these days, only talking when I asked it something or a rare jab at me.
It seemed that this creepy system had some secretive stuff of its own going on—
I willed my status up close, looking at how much I had grown.
[STATUS]
Name: Noah D. Romero
Race: Human
Title: The Fated Villain
Heavenly Physique: Gluttony
Strength: 32
Agility: 37
Mana: 0
Charm: 8
Soul Power: 79
Skills: Soul Siphoning (Lvl 2), Mana Drain (Lvl3)
Out of both the skills, mana drain had improved the most, with my current level, I could even absorb an incoming attack with a certain amount and instantly turn it into energy for me to restore or heal.
As for my other skill, Soul Siphoning? When it leveled up due to absorbing the souls of so many low intelligence beasts in the forest; there seemed to be a qualitative change in my powers.
That pale blue liquid which seeped out of my skin everytime I wanted to absorb a soul had stopped coming.
Not only this but previously, I could not absorb a soul directly and thus had to ’consume’ the body od the beast to, turning it into a shriveled up mess, which to be honest was quite a pain in the ass.
At my current level, just a single touch of my hand is enough to consume an individuals soul as long as their soul power is less than mine.
This can also backfire and give me a backlash if they’re stronger than me so I can’t use this skill recklessly according to Damien.
As for the tendrils I made with manipulating the pale blue liquid?
That ability vanished with the levelling up of Soul Siphoning.
This put me in quite a disadvantage since I had no long rang attacks but there was not much I could do.
While all this was going on in my head, I did not realise that the team of 6 that had beeb following us had closed in way more than comfortable.
Grandma and I nodded our heads and purposely led the groups into a more secluded area in the woods.
Looking at them closely, they looked pretty well geared and all, which surprised me since I found no reason why they would target us when something from the Book of Sin came into my mind.
After the me in the book had rage killed the assassin for killing my grandma and I was on the run, a number of assassins had come to kill me to earn the reward the Thousand blades guild hall had kept.
Even though they were the forces of the Romero State itself, I had read that there was someone in my household who had put a bounty on me.
Just the fact that it was because of these assassins Grandma was killed in my past life made my blood run cold.
I stopped all of a sudden and casually looked at Ma.
"They are mine to kill—"
***
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