OVERPOWERED CHAPTER 10: DECISIONS

OUTER REALM OF MONSTERS AND BEASTS

It had been a few days since Jasper and Felix teleported outside of the Monarch's Tantrum valley to begin their travels throughout the whole outer realm. Training had not ended for Felix despite passing his teacher's test in the forest, with him practicing more spells to increase his repertoire of offensive magics as well as brushing up his swordsmanship. Felix still has a long way to go before posing a serious challenge for his monstrous teacher.

That didn't mean Felix had an easier time duelling his teacher. It seems that every fight where Felix made a stride, Jasper responded by widening the gap and increasing the ferocity that he displays when training the young adventurer. The old man might have promised to tone it down during training, but he never plays around when it comes to lessons. He even started using some martial arts in their spars along with a whole new range of offensive magics. Felix's daily schedule now included a rest period after being knocked out in particularly vicious spars.

Currently the apprentice and his mentor have been walking down a dirt road that was one of the few signs that civilized beings existed in these dangerous and wild lands, towards a location that Jasper wouldn't tell his apprentice. Jasper looked like he was searching for something as the days went by in their travels but didn't disclose what he was looking for to Felix. The only thing he said was that they were in the outer realms was to "do some good" and because Jasper himself can't be in the inner realm of man.

On his aversion to travel in human territories, the repentant soldier revealed that it had to do with his former affiliation with the Slane Theocracy. Felix's deductions proved to be on the money once again and figured out that his teacher went AWOL on the religious quacks squad, with a bounty on his head placed by the Theocracy and kill on sight orders issued to the military of the country especially the Scriptures. Jasper's position in the inner realm is further precarious since the Theocracy has immense influence in the human dominated lands.

However, Jasper reassured his apprentice that their travels won't be limited to the outer realm and that they might swing back to human civilization after Felix bulks up more to help his master keep his head. Felix seemed to underestimate just how much the Theocracy wants his teacher dead if Jasper was worried. That meant that the heavy weights of the xenophobic nation would be gunning for him and by extension anyone affiliated with the former soldier of genocide.

But for now the pair have been enjoying their travels around the strange and exciting land encountering more beasts and monsters, with a few standing out since they could talk. Felix and Jasper ran into a group of travelling minotaurs from the country of said creatures. Fortunately the pair didn't have to fight huge slabs of walking muscle as the party they encountered were merchants rather than warriors despite their imposing figures. It was actually a good thing they met as Jasper needed to stock up his inventory of items by purchasing and trading with the friendly monster merchants.

Aside from the friendly mounds of muscle, the only other creatures that teacher and student faced were more variations of beasts and monsters that they fought in the forest as well as new ones like goblins and ogres. The little green shortstacks being more of a nuisance than a threat and the ogres giving Felix more experience in how to effectively fight larger beasts with bipedal forms. Of course Jasper decided to leave most of the fighting to Felix as "extra classes" so that he can develop his skills outside the "safety" of lessons.

The one-armed adventurer confronted his first undead in the form of walking skeletons in a haunted battlefield of sorts, the grounds littered with rusted pieces of weapons and armour. Jasper explained that the outer realm has a higher chance of spawning undead since so many restless souls reside in it, which results in stubborn souls to come back as various forms of undead depending on their strength. The skeletons Felix faced looked to be soldiers who perished in wars fought in the outer realm or criminals deciding to create a base of operations in lands without law only to fall like others before them.

The young adventurer learned much from his battle against these literal restless bones. Undead have maintained a small form of sentience as the result of their souls being too stubborn to pass on and sticking to their broken husk of bodies or any other recepticle in order to cling to the realm of the living. As a result they would be immune to damage that would fell a living being such as slashing and piercing attacks. More powerful undead would even have the choice of forgoing physical forms and manifest as powerful spirits with dreaded necromantic magic.

And that is where the advance magic lessons come to play for Felix. One of the few methods to deal with undead is using magic to destroy both their undying bodies and tethered souls. Fire spells could burn down swathe of undead as their bodies become more vulnerable to flames, with most holy spells always having an affinity to light and fire hence their effectiveness on them. Another method would be brute strength to crush the rotten bodies but obviously requiring more strength than what the undead can withstand in order to pulverize them, this method while easier to grasp and perform would be limited to the physical undead like zombies and skeletons and would be ineffective against spirits.

After dispatching some skeletons with a cast of [Fireball], Felix turned to Jasper who was sitting down on a nearby boulder where he was observing his student's battle. "As much as I like being pretending to be an undertaker for the walking piles of spooky skeletons can you stop being a cryptic geezer and tell me what is the plan right now? Aside from meeting some monsters that don't want to kill us we haven't been doing anything different than what we did in the valley!"

Felix finished his annoyed rant with a cast of [Grand Fireball] to obliterate the remaining skeletons. The searing heat of the magical flames heating up the air slightly and turning the undead into ash. The disgruntled student taking some enjoyment at blasting things with fire before turning to his teacher again.

"To be honest lad we don't really have a destination to go to specifically and for now the plan is to just continue your training. Wanna have lunch now? I caught some rabbits while you were dealing with the skeletons and have a recipe for a wonderful stew!" Jasper gave his answer on the current situation they were in before proceeding to get lunch ready.

Felix was rendered speechless at his teacher revealing that they did not have a concrete plan aside from training or a destination in mind. The wind blew softly around them as the pile of corpses he torched continued to burn in the background. The young adventurer inhaled a breath of air despite it being mixed with ash from his cremation and yelled;

"…What do you mean you don't have a plan?! You must have had something in mind before "retiring" from killing anything that had an extra limb or looked funny. Didn't you mention something about repenting and doing some good while you were out here? Were you just daydreaming in monster menagerie before picking me up in the valley?!"

The frustrated young man finished his long rant at the old traveller who was busy prepping their meal. The sound of ingredients being chopped, and the crackling fires of both the previous battle and campfire were the only noise heard. Jasper dropped the ingredients he was chopping into the simmering pot above the campfire before finally giving his answer.

"I didn't say we didn't have a plan, only that the current plan is to strengthen you up for the fights to come. In terms of destination, we don't need to go to a specific place since our goal is anywhere in the outer realm."

Felix asked his teacher to explain what he meant. Jasper stirred the pot of cooking stew with a wooden ladle among his cooking utensils. The rabbits he added into the delicious smelling concoction absorbing the various herbs and spices in the simmering broth as he added a few more ingredients to thicken the soup into a more stew-like texture.

"I mentioned the Sunlight Scripture's role in exterminating demi-human villages and terrorizing any folks with ideas that goes against the Theocracy's policy on non-humans, didn't I? Well, what we will be doing once you become strong enough is to stop their operations and hopefully push them out of the outer realms, never to threaten innocent lives again and hopefully annihilating the Sunlight Scripture."

Hearing his teacher's "brilliant plan" of wanting to further antagonize the fantasy third Reich of the New World he used to work for, the one-armed adventurer let out a sarcastic laugh that would have been accompanied with a slow clap if he still had his other arm.

"That's priceless Jasper. Like it was so funny that I thought your Alzheimer's was acting up and that I needed to bring you to the closest thing for an old folks home around here. But seriously what's your actual plan that doesn't involve antagonizing a country filled with religious lunatics that already want you dead?"

Jasper continued to stir the pot of stew for a few minutes before putting a lid on it to continue cooking. He set the spoon he used to stir the pot aside and faced his student with a serious expression on his face. An uneasy feeling grew in Felix's gut once he saw that his mentor wasn't joking around.

"…No way. No, no, no and I would keep going but I need to voice out that your plan is asinine! You cannot expect just the two of us to bring down an elite taskforce equipped with enough resources and manpower to dominate a country!"

Felix voiced his displeasure loudly to his demented teacher. He learned plenty about the various scriptures thanks to his lessons, and the main thing that comes to mind when thinking about the Slane Theocracy and their squads of genocidal nutcases is that it would be good for his health to avoid them at all costs.

All six of the Scriptures are an elite fighting force that could function separately from the Slane Theocracy's main military force to become an army on their own, exemplified best by the previous story that his teacher told him about the Sunlight Scripture's full-scale invasion against the Elf Country, who possessed their own formidable defences and military. What chance does a crippled green adventurer and an old geezer have against these guys, and that's not even accounting the Black Scripture who have plenty of members stronger than his formidable mentor.

Jasper took Felix's objections and fierce stare in stride, still having the stony expression on his face against his student's displeasure in this ill thought "plan".

"Someone has to stop them Felix. We can't just wait for a hero to show up do the right thing when we have the capability to do something."

The retired soldier once again had a miserable aura around him and became melancholic again. Jasper's face had a sad expression that didn't fit well on him, and it looked like the old traveller aged considerably.

"The Slane Theocracy claims to be safeguarding humanity's place in this world and soul from the encroachment of non-humans but the things they have done towards that goal has made me question if humans deserve to exist in the first place. How much of our humanity must be sacrificed to sustain an empty husk of a species that requires the suffering and deaths of innocent lives to continue existing?". Jasper moved towards his apprentice to stand before him and look directly in Felix's eyes to offer a solution.

"I won't force you to help me in this endeavour lad. A man needs to see through his own mistakes and rectify them alone without dragging everyone along the ride. We can continue your training as usual, and once you've reached a decent level to survive in the outer realm, we will part ways."

The fire that Felix started died out suddenly at the ultimatum Jasper gave to Felix regarding their new plan in the outer realm. The sound of crackling embers of the undead cremation and cooking stew the only sound that could be heard as the soon to be former teacher and student stared at each other silently.

The following weeks seemed to pass by quickly since Jasper gave his apprentice a pass on battling the Theocracy's ilk to continue his own adventures without the repentant soldier.

The travelling duo have reverted to a professional teacher and student relationship with the decision of splitting up made by the young adventurer. Their days have been spent in silence, with the only interaction being their battles that started to get more intense as Felix's power grew every day. Their spars have now reached the point where an outside observation would think the pair were fighting to the death, as Jasper viciously beating down his apprentice and Felix aiming to severely injure if not kill his teacher when an opening was found.

It seemed that Jasper's inner conflict of losing his only student was bleeding into training and turning it into abuse, but the results speak otherwise. Felix's power grew tremendously with every broken bone, spilt blood and torn flesh as the harsher training regimen and spars served as a boost to his skills and level. Progress that would have taken months have now been completed in just a few weeks.

The day has finally come for Felix's final duel to determine his ability to survive in the harsh outer realm without the protection of his teacher, and for the travelling duo to part ways in their adventures. Felix did some practice swings with old reliable on one side of the field chosen as their final sparring ground while Jasper checked on his rune blade on the other side.

Felix got into a stance that was hammered into his head figuratively and literally by his teacher while Jasper brought out his rune blade once again. The magic runes glowing in a eerie manner to signify Jasper bringing his A-game in the fight to determine if the student has surpassed his master.

"We can still put off the spar for a few more weeks Felix. While you made startling progress, the outer realm is still no walk in the park for anyone regardless of how strong they are." Jasper's suggestion of shelving the final test on another day served to rile Felix up instead of convincing him to postpone it.

"I'm not the same little shit you found in that damned forest old man. The world will always be dangerous, and safety is only assured by those with the strength to maintain it. You of all people should know that, Jasper!" Felix ended his points by igniting old reliable with a fire spell.

"…Guess the time for talking and compromise is over. I wished we could have ended our partnership on a lighter note, but things never come easy for either of us it seems." Jasper readied himself in a stance, his body glowing with various martial arts enhancements, signifying how serious he is taking the final duel against his student.

Both fighters continued to silently observe the other, a soft breeze and the flames crackling on old reliable the only noise that can be heard. In an instant both Felix and Jasper quickly closed the distance between each other to lock blades.

Sparks flew as burning blade grinded against rune blade, the runes themselves glowed brightly and absorbed the flames into it. Old reliable was extinguished of its fire enchantment and a flurry of strikes began with teacher and student deflecting and countering each other's blows.

Actions speak louder than words, with every strike being met by the other translates both the frustration of Felix and the disappointment of Jasper. Whatever the student and teacher wanted to tell one another of their thoughts were finally being laid out as they both began fighting in earnest.

The clash reached an explosive end when Felix ended the blade dance to cast a quick [Fireball] towards Jasper. Once again Jasper extinguished the flames easily with his rune blade, the magical flames being absorbed by the runes and slowly dissipated.

"While [Fireball] is a decent spell for battle, its effectiveness is reduced against superior opponents and stronger monsters. You'll only waste MP spamming it against stronger enemies as well as leaving yourself open to a counterattack, LIKE THIS!"

Jasper continued to give his student lessons in their final test and proceeded to punish Felix with a punch to his face and slashing his side while the young adventurer was dazed.

"You need to stop relying too much on that spell. Being predictable is a death sentence once your opponent figures you out and knows what your next move will be."

Finding his bearings once more after receiving his first injuries in the spar so far, Felix switched up his tactics against the powerful old traveller. Seeing as brute strength will get him nowhere, the bloodied newbie thought of a new approach.

[Widen Magic: Sunlight]!

The bright magic's effects were widened considerably that it consumed the entire area. Jasper's enhanced senses worked against him as the light blinded him even more than the spell would usually. Taking advantage of this brief advantage, Felix braced himself and casted one of the strongest spells in his arsenal; [Maximize Magic: Grand Fireball] towards the incapacitated traveller.

Jasper's brief stun from the bright light lasted a few seconds as his rune blade once again absorbed the stronger flame spell. As the spell continued to be eaten by his weapon, the old traveller had a disappointed expression on his face.

"…another fire spell lad? Have the months of our training been for nothing with how you repeat the tactics used in all your fights except for blinding me temporarily with that [Sunlight] spell. It was a good move but wasted in the end with your repetitive tactics."

Felix ignored his teacher's criticism to focus on the flames that spread out around Jasper. Acting quickly, he casted a quick [Thunderlance]. The old adventurer was struck by the spell and staggered slightly with a small grunt of pain. Unfortunately, the enhanced [Grand Fireball] was still not done being absorbed by Jasper's rune blade and his lapse in concentration unleashed the spell from being absorbed to explode.

"That damned sword of his always absorbed any magic I could throw at him no matter if it was a lightning or fire spell, not to mention it also passively absorbs enhancement magics that I casted on myself as we continued to cross blades. But I noticed how it took some time for the rune blade to fully absorb a spell before it can be used again. These past fights have built up my MP reserves enough to do that final Hail Mary, but mana exhaustion feels worse than a physical beatdown!"

The magic exhausted Felix continued to breath heavily and steadied himself on his feet to prevent dropping on to the ground and taking a dirt nap. The flames of his previous attack continue to burn and crackle, his teacher engulfed completely by the literal backfire.

However, Felix knew that wasn't enough to take out the stubborn old man with Jasper slowly appearing from the raging inferno unharmed. The only sign of damage to his person was the scuff mark of his [Thunderlance] on his side, the first and perhaps only damage he dealt to the monstrously strong senior citizen. Even with the miniscule damage this was the first time that Jasper received a wound from a spar with Felix, the affected area stung just a bit.

"Guess I did learn something from all these months of not even laying a scratch on your old ass. Now its time for me to pass out on my own terms now if you don't mind. Going down in 3, 2, 1-…" The magically exhausted student fell to the ground on his face, the amount of magic he performed taking a larger toll on him than the thrashings he faced.

Jasper worked to extinguish raging fire with a [Create Water] spell so that it won't burn down the field they were in. He patted the area where his student's low tier spell hit him. While the spell he used wasn't that powerful, the casting speed and accuracy made it an excellent quick shot spell that passes the senses of even the most vigilant opponents. His student did learn something other than flinging fire spells and getting beaten up to unconsciousness.

Too bad Felix still ended up taking an impromptu nap after every fight. Old habits seem to die hard. The old traveller walked to his student once more and carried him to their camp site just like any other day of training, but this would be the last time.

"Heh. You finally got a hit on me but still got knocked out in the end like always. Regardless of your beauty sleep finale, you passed lad. I'm sure going to miss having you around…"

Jasper placed his apprentice in his usual sleeping bag and tucked him in while he went to start their final after-spar meal. Perhaps the same stew that he made when they first met for nostalgia.

He couldn't really complain about losing his first and only apprentice to go out alone in the world again. The task of eliminating the Sunlight Scripture was his goal alone and not for a young man just starting to live his life.

After resting from his magic exhaustion and having their final meal together, Jasper and Felix began their farewells to each other before setting off on separate paths. The goodbyes turned out to hurt more than any number of injuries sustained from training and fighting monsters.

Felix was conflicted with his decision in leaving Jasper to set out by himself. He found the idea of friendship and company a laughable concept since yearning for such things in the old world was just asking to be stabbed in the back. But now that he experienced it himself with his former teacher, he found it hard to go back to being alone.

If he was younger and more naïve Felix would have thought Jasper as what he wanted his father to be like. But now that he was a bit wiser, he realised that Jasper is better than an absent parent that didn't think twice of leaving his child alone on the streets. Someone who never left him to fend for himself and helped him without a second thought, and now he was repaying it by abandoning him to save his own skin.

In the end he really did become just like his father after all. With nothing to say that would ease the abandonment and feelings of cowardice, Felix bid his teacher farewell and went on his way. But it seemed that Jasper had some things to say to his apprentice and gestured for him to not leave just yet.

The old traveller came forward to his former student and gave him a big hug. "Hope to see you on the road someday lad. Just know that I don't blame you for wanting to sit this one out, and I wish you good fortune on the road ahead."

Felix stood frozen at the act of affection that he never dreamed of receiving from anyone. He could only raise his only arm to pat the old traveller on the back as they continued to embrace for a few minutes before both stepped away from each other.

With no more words to exchange and daylight waning, both travellers parted ways to pursue their own adventures. Both Felix and Jasper hoping to see each other in the future or the next life.

"Well, it took me a while to get a hang of cooking, but I can finally boast about my ability to create meals that look edible while also tasting good." Felix thought as he brought out the skewered piece of meat from the fire. Instead of looking burnt and unappetizing like his first attempt, it had a pleasant brown char as well as the delectable scent.

It had been a couple of hours since he parted ways with Jasper and arrived in the nearby forest off the dirt road. After eliminating the monsters around the area of his campsite and casting some spells to ward it from intruders, he set up camp to rest for the night. The moon shone bright and contrasted with the campfire to cast a serene glow in his camp.

He chewed on his food and felt a sense of nostalgia about his cooking lessons from Jasper. While he was fine with his food not looking pretty since it was still edible, Jasper insisted to refine his culinary abilities to make his food look and taste good. Thoughts about his former mentor drained the happiness he felt and replaced it with sadness.

Felix was beginning to regret not wanting to help Jasper to stop the Sunlight Scripture running amok in the outer realms and continuing their genocide quest. What really was the point of all that training if he ended up being too chicken shit to fight back against assholes who deserved a beatdown.

But that tiny part of Felix also clung to the logic of not being involved in business that doesn't have anything to do with him. He got lucky with just losing his arm by being overconfident in the valley. Playing his cards wrong and biting off more than he can chew would land him six feet under, and unlike in the game he won't respawn to fight another day.

"Even if the old man and I finished off the Sunlight Scripture, the rest of the Theocracy would come down on us hard. They were going hunt us down eventually since Jasper is a fugitive of the Theocracy already but directly meddling in their operations would put the spotlight on us…"

Felix decided to think more on the dilemma of helping his teacher and drawing the ire of an entire nation tomorrow. For now, the only thing that matters is that he can live his life as he pleased and throwing it away for someone else's benefit other than himself is a no-go.

Jasper made his choice in helping him without gaining or demanding anything, so Felix is well within his rights to take advantage of that. The old man was kind but that didn't mean Felix should throw his life away just to clear the guy's conscious and going against a nation of religious nutjobs.

The one-armed adventurer never found sleep that night, for his thoughts was still on Jasper and his suicidal plan to oppose one of the most powerful human nations in the New World. He kept thinking on and on of his former mentor's futile plan as well as trying to clear up the guilt welling up inside of him for not staying to help.

Aside from the guilt and self-justifications that clouded Felix's mind, memories of the time spent in company with the kind old traveller and his first and only friend was swirling in the guilt-ridden young man's head. Felix dozed off to the final thought of his kind teacher walking to his death alone…

"I made a promise to myself to always look out for number one no matter what. The only thing that matters is that I live to see another day and uplift my way of living from the squalor that I came from… Guess I should stop making promises since I suck at keeping them."

It only took Felix one night to finally relent to the annoying conscious he developed and go back to help Jasper. Seems that cooking and fighting skills aren't the only things that Felix picked up from the sentimental old man he calls his teacher.

Using [Teleportation] to go back to the spot he parted ways with Jasper, Felix picked up the pace to quickly follow his teacher's trail and lend him aid. While still on the road using the [Compass] spell to keep himself oriented, the young adventurer saw plumes of smoke on the horizon. Curious at what was happening for multiple fires springing up in one area, Felix quickly made his way to the source of the smoke and found hell on earth.

The smoke originated in a village of sort with houses that were currently on fire while others had become smoking ruins. There were corpses in various states of butchery, some were burnt to crisps while others were chopped up and became piles of splintered bone and meat barely clinging to form a complete body. From the corpses that still looked in one piece, he could tell that this village was home to demi-humans from their human-like features and animal traits like ears and tails.

He didn't see a single living soul and found more death as he walked deeper in the destroyed village. This atrocity didn't stop with just adults as he found several smaller shapes among the rubble and gore, in a similar state of defilement with charred bodies and missing limbs.

He finally found some human bodies among the dead, but they didn't look like civilians as they were wearing uniforms and a strange helm covering their faces. The bodies were intact, and he could see wounds that showed them killed by a sword instead of being butchered like the others.

These were members of the Sunlight Scripture, and he must be in one of their demi-human exterminations.

Looks like these assholes must have found someone that fought back but all the demi-human corpses he found along the way didn't have any weapons, that means Jasper must have arrived here to try and save the village but arrived too late.

Felix started to survey more of the death and destruction while trying to find survivors. He could only lament on what could have been if he stayed with Jasper, and maybe this village would still be standing. What can be done now is to salvage the situation and avenge the fallen by wiping out any remaining Scripture members that might be in the village before they link up with other squads to continue the slaughter.

The young adventurer didn't need to wait long as he finally came upon a few Scripture members that were still alive. Felix could count around 10 members that stood in a loose formation walking towards him.

One of the members gestured for the group to stop before conversing calling out Felix. "Halt! State your name and purpose. This village is in the process of being cleansed by the holy edict of the great Slane Theocracy in the name of the gods. Are you human or perhaps another one of these filthy animals?"

Felix kept a lid on boiling temper to observe the Scripture soldiers that started to surround him. Some of them were preparing a few spells while others reached for their weapons. The soldier that spoke to him had his hand on a sword strapped on his side.

"The name's Felix. And yeah I'm as human as they come but minus a limb. So, who am I speaking to and are you the only ones in this village doing the 'cleansing'?". The young adventurer answered the questions of the soldier with a smile on his face, masterfully concealing the anger bubbling inside him.

"Just a simple traveller of these lands then? Then we have no argument with you, but as a fellow human it is your duty to assist in the expansion of humanity's control in these savage lands and seeing the sword you have on your person you must be a skilled fighter to survive this long in the outer realm. Its best if you come with us and relinquish any resources as well as become conscripted to our forces… -"

"What kind of moustache twirling villain bullshit is happening right now? Its like the world wants this guy to be a huge scumbag so he can die and no one will feel bad about it…"

The Sunlight Scripture soldier continued to prattle on about Felix's proper place among their forces as a peasant and how honoured he should feel to be of assistance to the guardians of mankind. After seeing Felix only having one arm, he then started a monologue on useless cripples still having a role to play in the Theocracy's plans despite deviating from humanity's superior form from a lack of faith and blessings of the gods. He continued to flap his gums for a few more minutes before the soldier demanded Felix's answer, which was eloquently spoken like poetry.

"The only thing I will be helping you with is making all of you presentable for a budget funeral since I'm going to cut you all up to fit one hole. And the resources for your 'glorious' goal, you can have my sword. Open wide so I can use your cunt mouth as a sheathe."

The motley crew of fanatics took exception to that answer and responded by reaching for their weapons and readying spells. Acting quickly, Felix dashed to the soldier that spoke to him and prepared to slash at him. The leader was able to follow Felix's moves and readied his sword to block the attack. What happened next was shocking for both parties.

Rather than the familiar resistance of swords clashing against each other, Old Reliable connected to the leader's sword for a few seconds before shattering it and continuing to cut through the flesh of the soldier. Felix's wide swing ended up bifurcating the soldier and the attack ended with one dead fanatic separated to two halves. The stupefied adventurer could only look at his bloody sword and the gory remains of his first human kill while the remaining soldiers cried out in horror and blasted their spells at him.

"BY THE GODS!"

"MONSTER!"

The spells of fiery blasts and blinding lights collided on Felix while he was still confused at the monstrous strength he displayed. Rather than dying from the onslaught of magic, he took the brunt of the spells nonchalantly much to the growing horror of the Sunlight Scripture members. Felix now stopped looking at his previous kill and turned to face the horrified soldiers.

Deciding to think about his newfound monstrous constitution later, the apparently invincible adventurer casted a [Lightning] spell that shot to the first soldier and forked to the remaining ones. Cries of agony died down as the remaining soldiers fell to the ground, their forms smoking and sparking.

"Well that takes care of that and I also got a rough estimate of what you Scripture dogs are worth, absolutely nothing. Got to hand it to you though, the spells did sting like a bitch."

Now free from further annoyances he took stock of his fighting capabilities and observed the corpses of the soldiers he just killed. He now has enough strength to breeze through mooks at the level of Scripture soldiers and their spells don't pose much of a threat to him, but just to safe he shouldn't stand still like a jackass and take on offensive spells like that in the future.

"Now what was I doing before you assholes showed up?... Oh shit Jasper!" Felix remembered his original goal rushed forward to find his teacher. With any luck he did away with the remaining Sunlight Scripture in the area before they found Jasper.

He stumbled upon an even more gruesome sight than the burned and dismembered bodies. There were bodies crucified in the middle of the village and at the centre was Jasper kneeling on the ground. The old man didn't appear hurt, but this gruesome sight of the butchered villagers must have hurt him more than any physical wound. Surrounding the old man were corpses of the remaining Scriptures aside from the ones Felix killed.

Jasper raised his head from the kneeling position to see his wayward student return. He had some surprise on his face before having a neutral expression. "…Felix. I knew we would meet again but I didn't know it would be so soon. I was planning to have a grand meal for our reunion but right now isn't the time. I hope you can understand that I'm preoccupied with some stuff to sort out."

The old man's joking tone didn't suit the empty look he had. Felix stopped right in front his depressed teacher but didn't say anything. He can't think of anything to say that would bring back the dead or make the fucked-up situation any better.

"…Come help me with cleaning up lad. We can talk more after laying the dead to rest and having something to eat." Jasper stood up and walked to the crucified bodies first, the young adventurer quickly following his teacher's move and gathering most of the dead for burial.

The reunited teacher and student proceeded to gather the bodies of the slaughtered villagers and prepared graves for all of them. The total number of dead was around 100, but the final count is difficult to pin down as the Sunlight Scripture squad that butchered the village desecrated the bodies and most of the corpses were already burnt to ashes.

On the bright side they didn't have to waste too much time with the bodies belonging to the Scripture. After looting the bodies of any valuable items, all their bodies were put in a large hole and burned by Felix's magic. The young adventurer wanted to leave them to rot in the open, but Jasper advised against it since the rotting corpses would spread disease and attract unwanted attention from local monsters to the area wanting to feast on human flesh.

After burying the last body in a makeshift graveyard that had many other rudimentary tombstones made of sticks, Jasper performed the last rites and read from a fancy book that contrasted his rough traveller appearance.

It appeared to be a tome that contained some holy spells. An ethereal light shone around them as Jasper continued casting spells of warding from evil and protection. His spell casting more akin to prayers, for the innocents that died to find peace and pass on quietly.

Felix remembered about undead springing up and refused to pass on because of lingering regret or great malice. Jasper's holy spells served as a way for the tortured souls to not return and put them to rest. Being killed by self-righteous assholes would make some people a little dissatisfied.

The old man finished his prayers and the light that shone around them died down. The only light that shines is the waning daylight and the Scripture bonfire from earlier burning away true filth.

The silence was broken by Felix, who had in his hand a map from one of the bodies of the soldiers. Written on the map were some notes and markers that indicated potential targets for further raids and the location of the camps of more Sunlight Scripture squads operating in the outer realm.

"I'm sorry that it took me too long to decide on doing the obvious thing and helping you stop these guys sooner. Do you still want to continue our apprenticeship while also taking the fight to the Theocracy? My words won't make a difference, but I hope my actions will speak louder."

Jasper stood a little straighter and looked at his student. He cracked a small smile and agreed with Felix. "Only if you're fine with tolerating a washed-up geezer like me a bit longer lad. I can't say for certain that what we do here would put a dent to the Theocracy's plans, but we can stop this from happening again in another place. As for that apprenticeship? We have a lot of lessons to catch up since you left."

Jasper extended his hand to Felix for a handshake to reaffirm their partnership once more. The one-armed adventurer happily grasped his teacher's hand and shook it with fervour. Both teacher and student determined to brave the dangers of the future and prevent the massacre that happened today, but this time they'll have each other to depend on.

Felix

Alignment: Neutral Good

Titles: Apprentice, Adventurer

Total Level: 40

Racial Level: N/A

Job Level: Apprentice (10)

Cook (2)

Fighter (10)

Hunter (6)

Marksman (4)

Survivor (8)