"He's too fast, he can't dodge it!" Lien screamed, looking at Jake, who was not doing anything.
"Trust him, he's not that dumb to die like this," Jake said, "Didn't you all witness him kill that giant Earth slime back then?"
Hearing him, Lien's attention went to Nine again. Watching the saber blade near him, Lien prepared to see Nine get hurt.
As the blade was about to hit Nine, he suddenly stopped moving, making the wolf blade hit the ground, and making it stuck in the ground.
Nine raised a fist and threw a straight Jab to the wolf's face, pushing it a few meters away from him and forcing the wolf to let go of its blade.
Gripping his hammer tightly, Nine hit the blade ice, shutting it completely down.
Watching its ice blade shatter into tens of pieces, the wolf growled and jumped Nine in the air, with its nail out from its paws.
Watching the wolf in the air, Nine stepped back, dodging it.
Swish, Swish, Swish....
The wolf threw multiple strikes of its hands at Nine from the ground, only for him to step back a few, avoiding them completely.
Annoyed, the wolf gathers its strength into its legs, increasing its speed by multiple times, and successfully lands a punch to Nine, hurling him a few meters away.
"That was quick!" Nine said with his arm raised, after guarding against the wolf attack.
"My turn! [ Body control technique — Sacrifice! ]" He said, as another window appeared above him.
[ Strength and Defense stats have lowered by 90% in exchange for increasing Agility by 150%. ]
"Scam!" He screams, hearing it.
Running back a few meters away from the wolf, Nine summoned his hammer again, locked eyes with its head, and sped up towards it.
The wolf, unable to keep up with Nine's speed, after the sudden stats change, couldn't move away from him.
Swinging his hammer into its face, Nine summoned five lighters without the plastic layer on their bodies, having only the gas container right in front of the hammer head, creating a small explosion.
"Didn't I tell him not to use his runes?" Shelia said, hearing an explosion happen, not knowing it came from the broken lighters.
"Wow, this woman is cruel. He could literally die if he messes up once, and your worry is him using his runes?" The tall woman said, as everyone looked at Shelia in disbelief.
"I'm the bad guy here now?" Sheila asked.
As Nine in the background continues to hit the wolf's face, using the combination of hammering its face and summoning his lighters to create an explosion.
"Yes, he's literally a kid, if we don't acknowledge the actual age of adulthood," Jake replied. Making everyone in the group agree.
"Haha." Lien laughed, pushing away Shelia to his back.
"Sorry guys, this woman of mine is a bit cracked in her head, so can we just continue watching Nine.... Since he's about to finish his fight!"
Agreeing, everyone's attention went back to Nine.
"Stay quiet now Shelia..." Lien said to her, covering her mouth with his hands.
Back to Nine.
"Shit! This guy is annoying!" Nine said, dodging the barrage of punches to him
"Even after 30 lighter explosions to its face, it's still going on." He said, looking into his soul to see the number of broken lighters within it.
All this time, Nine has been studying his lighter, and how the broken mechanism works.
From what he learn, he just needed to take out the pressure within it and it would be considered as a destroyed item, allowing him to summon another one.
Then, he realized something, even though the lighter was already considered destroyed, he could still put it back into his soul.
So he thought, could he continue to destroy more of it and place them back into his soul, having tens of broken lighters that he could potentially use in the future?
So he did, Nine would take out the plastic layer of the lighter, showing only the gas container, and would destroy that plastic layer, allowing him to summon another one.
Before he could only summon up to ten lighters per day. But after buying a nail clipper, Nine was able to summon up to 30-60 ligthers a day, before he went to sleep.
Since then, Nine has been doing this every day, from the first day he got into this world till yesterday, before he slept.
So, in the last two seasons, Nine has built up thousands of ligthers, which he could use to create a small explosion if he cannot use his rune.
"Just a bit more." Nine said, seeing the explosion working on the wolf's face. 'Besides, it's probably noticing a pattern in my attacks by now.'
He thought smirking within, on his way to attack the wolf again with the hammer and lighter combination.
The wolf, seeing Nine about to attack again, let go of its chest piece armor and created a headpiece instead, knowing Nine would use the same attack once again.
"Haha, dumbass. Fooled you!" Nine said, seeing the wolf's reaction to him
Summoning the pen from his artifact inside the two slots, Nine looked into the wolf's heart and struck it down. Penetrating through its flesh and skin, killing it in one go.
[ You have earned a large amount of EXP. ]
[ Level up! ]
[ All stats increased by 1. ]
[ Vitality, Stamina, and Agility have increased by 2 from your ability: Balance breaker. ]
"Level up!? Let's go!! Hahaha, I actually level up for my first kill outside the town." Nine screamed, seeing the system notification.
Everyone looked at him and sighed, seeing the immature reaction of Nine to leveling up, reminding them how he was still a kid, even if he was 18 years old.
Poof!
A wolf's body suddenly disappeared before Nine, leaving only a ring with a single ice crystal on it.
"A drop item?" He asked, picking it up, and moving back to the group.
"Does anyone have a healing and Mana pot? I need it." He asked, blood spilling from his mouth.
"I can't summon any of the items inside the rune of mine since my mana is too low." He said, grabbing the healing pot from the Bunny lady.
Drinking it, Nine wiped off the blood from his mouth and said: "So, am I qualified now?" At the group.
Everyone gave a thumbs up, telling him he did. Looking at Shelia, he asked: "Why isn't she saying anything?"
Pushing away Lien's arm from her mouth, Sheila moved forward to Nine and said: "Yes, you're qualified."
Before asking: "Where is that artifact of yours? I don't see it anywhere on you."
She said, checking Nine's waist area, not seeing it attached to him, like they did when they met when Nine was fighting the hill slime.
"It's inside my soul. I have two slots in my soul that I can put things in. Currently, it's filled with rune papers and that artifact." He said.
Nine had no reason to lie or hide this matter, after all, even if they learn about it, no one could possibly use it for their own gain.
"By the way, the reason why I don't carry anything is because of this." Nine said, summoning a piece of paper from the slot.
"A paper? With a rune.... How's that an answer?" The Bunny lady asked, seeing nothing special about it.
"Like this." Nine replied, putting mana into it, and multiple potions appeared above the paper he was holding.
"I have a rune called Compress, which literally compresses things inside of it, acting like an inventory space. And with the slots in my soul, I can just put all the things I'm going to carry inside this paper, and place them inside those slots. Giving me freedom from not carrying anything."
Hearing Nine talk about another rune that Shelia didn't know of, she felt a deep jealousy of him having control of runes.
"Let's continue," Lien said, seeing Sheila about to burst on Nine words, remembering how she made Nine open up his status window back then, when they saw him fighting the hill slime.
With Lien words, the group started moving once again to their destination.
*****
End of chapter 29.
Original chapter 35.