Chapter 34: A little scavenger
Carl shrugged and said,
"I should get out of here."
However, Carl paused for a moment, then curled his lips into a faint smile as his gaze drifted toward a spot in the distance. Someone was still hiding behind the rock. To be honest, Carl had noticed that presence ten minutes ago. He’d expected the stranger to reveal himself by now—but nothing happened.
Maybe the guy was either too scared after witnessing Carl’s destructive power, or he had some other purpose.
"Hey, why don’t you come here and face me instead of hiding over there like a little rat?"
But after a dozen seconds, there was no response, no feedback at all, as if no one existed there.
Carl scoffed and rubbed his chin for a while. Then, with amusement, he leisurely headed over while trying to explain.
"Take it easy... I won’t harm you. There’s no point in it right now."
Carl smiled and thought,
"Of course, if you harm me in any way, I’ll burn you into a pile of ashes."
Carl stood by the rough rock and sensed the stranger’s presence behind it. He knew that stranger was still frozen there, seemingly a bit afraid after Carl’s words.
"He’s rather weak... just Rank F." Carl frowned, considering his assessment after using his [Dragon Sense] skill.
"Let’s take a look at you."
Then, in an instant, Carl moved with incredible speed, leaping over the rock and landing dramatically on the ground.
"Huh. He doesn’t even sense me behind him." Carl chuckled, gazing at the boy’s short frame.
Sure enough, Carl had moved with such abnormal speed that an ordinary Rank-F could never keep up with, their low rank leaving them completely blind to his presence.
Carl rubbed his chin and took a full look at the boy. He was probably a scavenger. That explained the scrawny, pale body. His life certainly had to be hell—living off the corpses in a lawless dungeon instead of at the academy, where he should’ve been enjoying life.
Unfortunately, no one can choose where they’re born. They had to adapt to every situation, even if where they lived was hell.
"It’s pitiful. Since you’re not making a stupid choice like the other robbers earlier, I show you mercy." Carl stepped forward and tapped the boy’s bony shoulder lightly.
"Hey, boy."
Half a second later, the boy lunged his dull knife at Carl without looking—pure instinct.
But to Carl, the sneaky strike was too slow and full of unnecessary movements.
"Guess he never got through even a basic combat lesson."
Carl caught the slender boy’s wrist and pressed him down until the boy screamed in pain.
Carl grimaced. "Shut your damn mouth. I know you’re just playing."
Still, the boy showed no sign of stopping his scream. Carl clicked his tongue in irritation.
However, in that brief moment, the boy suddenly twisted the holding wrist’s joints—another knife from somewhere lunged toward Carl’s right eye.
What a sly, cruel move.
Carl just smirked as he watched the boy’s performance. The boy had twisted his own joints to recover his usual movement and swung the knife from a hidden place.
In a normal case, the boy would probably have performed that dirty technique with some random guy, but at this moment, it was unlucky for a slender boy when the enemy was Carl.
Carl was a master of mean techniques. He believed that he had enough ability to even establish a school of training of technique involved in murder if he didn’t have anything to do.
Even this boy would have to kneel to learn Carl’s skill if he saw Carl’s skill.
"Behold my own, boy." Carl twisted his own right shoulder joint, forcing an abnormal movement, and with a quick motion threw him into the nearby rock with just enough force not to kill him.
Glancing at the filthy boy, Carl sniffed and triggered his skill.
[All-seeing eye activated]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Age]: 15
[Class]: Mystery
[Rank]: F
[Soul Rank]: ★
Skill: Summon Dragon Undead: Rank F/ Cursed Flame Rank F/
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"No way... Summon an undead dragon?" Carl’s mouth dropped in astonishment.
[System Notice]: Yes. He is a dracolich. A mystery class capable of summoning dragons from the dead.
Carl had heard about that class. It was an epic branch of the mystery class. If his dragon class wasn’t the Stoker class, then the Lich class would’ve definitely been one of his wishes. Just imagining himself sitting safely on a chair somewhere, watching undead dragons rampage, already felt great.
"But it’s a shame, as your soul dragon is weak. You’d never reach the zenith of your dragon class."
Carl rubbed his chin and finally broke the silence.
"Like I said: I won’t harm you, as long as you don’t try anything stupid, boy."
The boy grimaced, staring at Carl with suspicion.
"So you’ll let me go? I just want to pick up a few odd coins from the corpses."
Carl smirked.
"Need money? Hah. Let’s make a deal—I’ll hire you."
The boy shook his head right away.
"No."
Carl scratched the side of his head with a sigh.
"Why? I’ll make you a good offer. Enough that you won’t need to scavenge for trash for a long while."
The boy replied calmly.
"It’s simple. You look shady, and I’m fine with my current job. No need to change."
Carl frowned.
"Shady? Boy, I’m a gentleman. I don’t kidnap or anything like that."
The boy narrowed his eyes.
"You sure? Then why did you come here and kill those robbers?.. You lured them in and slaughtered them on purpose. I don’t know what you really are, but you’re definitely a murderer."
Carl’s face darkened.
"Yes, you’re right. I came here to kill them."
He raised his voice.
"I tried to convince you peacefully, but now I’ve changed my mind."
"I’m going to force you to follow me."
The boy smirked.
"See? You’re just like all the other garbage."
Carl rubbed his chin, eyes narrowing. For a moment he was surprised at the boy’s shift attitude, but then a thought struck him.
Maybe this boy was hiding something.
"Good. Show me what you can do. I wonder what tricks a little scavenger has up his sleeve."