Dysfunctional - An Assassin's Guide to Reincarnating in Another World

Chapter 42 - Homebound(Part 2)

This was starting to get tedious...

All the sights had been pretty much the same right throughout, it was nothing but rocks, caves, slopes, crevices...I did recognize some of the spots we'd set up camp in, but this was still starting to feel like a never-ending loop.

My clothes were pretty worn out too, my trousers were a couple of inches shorter than they were before, and my hoodie had a few holes in it. I had sort of lost track of exactly how many days it had been at some point, I think it was somewhere between twenty-one and twenty-three days, but I couldn't be sure.

The monsters I was facing at the moment consisted of mostly Devilbats and Ogres, along with an occasional stray Hobgoblin.

Well, on the bright side, at least my abilities were slowly improving as I pushed their limits while fighting monsters.

I had increased my control over Lightning Boost upto x2.7, I could use five percent Karma for ninety seconds before the internal damage begins, and twenty-five seconds with ten percent Karma. I tried going up to fifteen percent, but it barely lasts five seconds before it starts destroying my body and I have to force it back into the Mana Orb.

"Ugh, give me a break...I can't go half an hour without running into more of you ugly bastards," I sighed, drawing out my dagger as a group of snarling Ogres surrounded me.

I don't need any boosts for these things, I could take them out pretty easily in my normal state. Besides, I can't rely too heavily on my boosts, I need to keep my natural combat skills sharp.

When up against opponents with similar or greater speed, technique and natural instinct become the only remaining variables I can rely on. If my opponent was superior in those factors as well, my chances of winning would be slim to none.

Magic power was great and all, but I can't become too dependent on it, I can't let my technical skills rust or get sloppy.

Anyway, I took down the monsters in a handful of seconds. Even in my normal state, they appeared to be moving in slow motion. Maybe constantly boosting my body had improved my natural strength and speed as well...not to mention that this body is just around seventeen years old at the moment, it was still not done growing and developing.

I kept going, using Lightning Boost to run and move faster. Why hadn't I been doing this from the start?

Sure, it drains my stamina faster than walking, but I'm covering a lot more ground in a lot less time. I guess I hadn't really been thinking too clearly lately.

Well, there's no denying it...the events of that day in Goldway had really shaken me, every now and then I would have flashes of being buried under the pile of Zombies, running out of air as they continuously bit into me, as well as the pools of blood and lifeless, blown apart bodies of the Goldway citizens who died in the explosions...

After everything I'd been through in my previous life, I didn't think anything else could ever rattle me again...guess I was wrong.

I had faced death countless times before, but not like that...that had been a vicious, one-sided bloodbath, an entire nations' worth of people brutally wiped out in a matter of hours, and then the nation itself blown off the map, only for the very people who destroyed it to build their own nation in its place.

It's easy to be indifferent when you simply hear about a large disaster or massacre, but it's not so easy when you were one of the ones who actually went through it.

"Heh, trauma still keeps following me around huh, even in another world. Once I get back, I'm taking a break, for at least...a couple of weeks, maybe a month. Aaand I'm still talking to myself. Great."