"I told you Claire you can''t trust him! He''s not right in the head!"


    Jin Hyoon emerged behind a hut and glared at him.


    Dmitri and Li Jing were hiding behind a tree watching the commotion happening between Claire and Jeemin.


    He stopped and widened his eyes when he saw the rest of the party looking at him oddly.


    "No I—"


    Tick, tick, tick.


    Hundreds of needles suddenly pricked all over his body.


    The black leather robe shone in red and arteries appeared out of its surface.


    Blood red liquid started to flow on the arteries.


    Tud dud, tu dud.


    Tu dud.


    Tudd duudd!


    Suddenly, his eyes glowed in red as he thrusted the sword in front of him.


    Swish..


    Fortunately, Claire immediately stepped back at the same time when red glow appeared on Jeemin''s robe, making him missed his target.


    "I told you, you didn''t listen to me Claire. He''s totally lost it!" Jin Hyoon shouted with terrified voice.


    "Arghh."


    [Art of Berserker: Rage activated]


    His legs were shaking violently whenever he took a step forward as if he was forcing himself not to do so in the first place.


    When his eyes momentarily lost its red glow, he immediately kept the sword on his pouch and hurriedly explained.


    "No you''re misunderstanding—"


    Tu dud, tud dud, tud dud.


    His heart beat suddenly increase when the needles coming inside from the robe dug deeper into his skin.


    It''s the Origin inside my palm!


    Jeemin can feel the ''thoughts'' coming from the Origin influencing his mind, forcing him to feel rage and activate the art of berserk: rage.


    With his mind gradually being consumed by the rage welling up in his heart, he made a split decision.


    He picked up the greatsword, ran away from them, and headed to the direction where Claire pointed earlier: Cipriani''s base of operations.


    *


    "Where''s Rock, why the hell is he sleeping at the hut? Haist, I''m tired, let me sleep."


    "Shut up, you were just sleeping a moment ago."


    "Oh am I? Okay, watch for me for awhile..."


    How can this guy sleep while standing?


    The man keeping watch in front of Cirpriani''s base shook his head and yawned.


    However, he soon caught a figure darting towards them like a red bull.


    It was fast, very fast.


    The next thing he knew, it was already some meters away from them.


    "Hey wake up! A ghost, a devil, I don''t what to call it hey!" He shouted with terrified voice and slapped the back of the guy''s head beside him.


    "What are you—"


    "Holy F! Run."


    They immediately left their assigned post and ran away for their dear life.


    "Is that a new monster?!"


    "I didn''t sign up for this. I only signed my first novel contract but I was suddenly transported to this world! I literally didn''t sign up for this!"


    The man''s cry resounded in the entire forest causing the owls and birds sleeping on the trees leave there nests.


    If the birds were startled, then what about the people sleeping on the base?


    "What happened?" A man asked as he went out of his hut.


    "M-m-monster!"


    "Hmm? Useless, let me handle it." He drew out his sword immediately and headed to where the horror-stricken guy was pointing.


    Bam!


    A resounding explosion caught him off guard. Debris and splinters of woods from destroyed huts flew everywhere.


    When he finally saw the ''monster'', he couldn''t help but frown.


    Eh, it''s just a human being, what is there to be afraid off—


    His thoughts was soon cut short when he saw the arteries glowing on the man''s robe. It was beating violently to the point that he can hear a sound akin to a loud heartbeat.


    Tud dud, tud dud, tud dud.


    "Interesting. Maybe if I can bring someone like him down I can get his robe and that gigantic weapon and exchange it to Cirpriani for learning the strange power he got."


    His licked his lips and pulled out another sword.A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    "Get out of there!" He shouted at the several men gathering around the man wearing a robe.


    When he was about to move, someone was sent flying in his direction as he duck down immediately.


    He turned his gaze on the man who just vomitted blood and fainted.


    "Bunch of useless twigs."


    He licked both of the surfaces of his swords and decided to observe the rampaging man''s movements for awhile.


    Quite frankly, the man''s movements were just simple in his own opinion.


    If he could describe it, the man was only mindlessly swinging, lifting, and slamming his huge heavy weapon around.


    But a shiver went down his spine when he heard the air parting ways  whenever the man swung the slab of iron.


    "I definitely can''t receive an attack like that. Although it''s simple, how the hell was he able to powerfully swing a weapon like that?!"


    However, his eyes glinted when he saw an opening.


    As Jeemin was about to swing the greatsword again, he suddenly felt a piercing pain coming from his lower right.


    He instinctively let go of the great sword as he intentionally fell on the left, to make the weapon that hit him deviate from its target.


    Clang.


    Rock frowned when he discovered that Jeemin''s robe was as hard as steel.


    [Warning! Blood is being consumed to negate the force. Durability 98/100]


    Jeemin felt groggy and the red glow in his eyes flickered as he crouched on the ground, warily staring at the man who was breath away from taking his life.


    Clarity soon returned to him when he realized that if it wasn''t for his leather robe, he might have actually lost his life.


    But the needles coming from the robe were still stuck inside his body.


    Hmm? The needles aren''t painful at all, it must be one of the effects of the Art of Berserker: Rage.


    He also discovered that whenever anger welled up in his heart, he felt his power increased.


    So this is how I can use it? Through anger?


    He shook his head and draw the broadsword on his pouch.


    His back straightened as he stood up while maintaining his wary eyes on the man holding two swords.


    The hand clasped around the hilt of the broadsword was shuddering from anxiousness.


    I honestly don''t know how to use a simple sword.


    One mistake, and he knew, the man before him could easily cut his head off.


    It was easier to use the greatsword as he can mindlessly swing it around because of its length, despite its weight.


    Fortunately, an idea came to him when he took a look at the greatsword resting a distance away from him.


    He checked if he can still activate the Origin inside his palm. However, his arm shook violently when he activated it.


    It felt like that if he used it two or three more times, the Origin inside his palm would go out of control and consumed him instead. Since the Origin inside his palm was like a part of his body, he naturally ''know'' how would it react if he overused it.


    I need to defeat him in one move.


    The muscles in his arm started to swell up and thick veins popped up on the back of his hand, clenching the hilt of the sword.


    I only got once chance.


    "Oh, Cipriani, I was hoping to see you."


    As he spoke suddenly, he casually lifted up the broadsword and allow it to rest on his shoulder.


    "?"


    The moment Rock turned his head to take a look, a silver object flew in his direction. The wind parted ways as the sword flew straight forward.


    He instinctively raised his two swords and managed to stop the sword by its hilt. But its tip was able to pierce his chest.


    "You—"


    When he was about to speak, Jeemin was gone like a wind while dragging the greatsword behind him.


    *


    He ran forward with his whole body feeling tired while the world was tilting from side to side in his vision.


    Jeemin greeted his teeth and continued locating where John Augustus was sleeping.


    His eyes were clear and not a hint of red was visible, the same as his robe.


    Damn it I almost harmed Claire earlier...


    He shook his head and chose to defer the matter for now.


    The wind blew as the trees swayed back and forth.


    The huts placed randomly on the field with trees occasionally hindering his view, made it harder to find his target.


    Although his heart was pounding at the idea of killing a human being with his own hand, he knew he would be doing this in the future.


    He''ll just go with flow for now and allow the rage consume him momentarily; he''ll just deal with the regret later after the deed was done.


    When he went deeper into their base, he heard a creaking sound of a door being opened.


    His head immediately turned towards the source and spotted a man wearing a priest robe yawning in front of the hut''s opened door.


    Jeemin quickly twisted his waist, slammed his left foot forward, activated the robe, and with his eyes glowing in red, threw the heavy greatsword sideward.


    The priest who was rubbing his eyes was unaware of the huge flying object heading towards him.


    "What—"


    His groggy voice abruptly changed into a yelp as he flew back with the slab of iron on his stomach.


    The hut behind him was torn to shreds as he left a trail of blood on the ground.


    Augustus grunted as he tried to prop himself up. But there was a heavy and thick slab of iron pinning him down.


    Augustus was still dizzy from getting his head hit the ground, making it almost impossible for him to remove the greatsword.


    Suddenly, blood spurted out of his mouth caused from the several cracked ribs piercing his organs.


    "What in the world?!"


    He muttered in difficulty as he coughed several times.


    Who was it? Was it someone who knew me from the previous world?


    John Augustus turned his head from side to side to check his surroundings, but the darkness enveloping the night sky only made it hard for him to see anything.


    He heard footsteps gradually coming closer to him as he lifted his head up and took look in that direction.


    A man clad in a black leather robe inlaid with numerous red arteries; glowing red eyes and a black face mask covering half of his face; and with his black hair fluttering ominously made John Augustus frightened out his wits.


    "Who are you? What do you want?!"


    "Nothing personal."


    Jeemin was trembling as he grabbed the greatsword resting on Augustus'' body.


    Strange, why do I feel like I''ve killed multiple people in the past before?


    Jeemin lifted up the greatsword as he stepped on Augustus'' chest.


    The red hue on his eyes was flickering from time to time as he hesitated.


    Noticing that the sword hasn''t cracked his head open yet, Augustus decided to speak.


    "You''re hesitating? Is this your first time?"


    The red in Jeemin''s eyes suddenly dimmed down as soon as he heard the priest speaking.


    "Shut up," he replied coldly.


    The priest sighed and continued, "I don''t know why you''re doing this, but I know you do have your own reasons. All people do. So let me be honest with you, I''m not buying time. Just kill me when Cipriani arrive. Until then, lend me your ear."


    Jeemin neither spoke nor nodded.


    [Mana running low!]


    "I started out as a—"


    "Too long, get to the point," Jeemin immediately interrupted when he saw the notice.


    The priest chuckled and said, "I once killed a human being too. At first I felt horrible as the little child''s eye begged for mercy. But as I said, everybody has their own reason why they would kill a human being."


    "You see, I was just born this way. It''s unfair. So every time I did it again, I''d convinced myself I had another reason. The killing went on and on as I mercilessly choked another child to death, until I develop a certain addiction doing it."


    "Long story short, the reasons I had justifying my actions flew right out of the window. It devolved from; ''I was doing this because I don''t deserve getting imprisoned based on the people I helped'' to ''I''m doing this for their own good''. Until I became..."


    The priest closed his eyes as he said, "Until I became a monster administering ''salvation''. When I realized what I had become, I knelt down and prayed, and begged for forgiveness. But I never heard God''s voice again."


    "... I was coward you know. Instead of atoning for the sins I''ve commited, I''ve decided to run away and killed myself."


    Jeemin who was listening to him couldn''t help but feel his stomach churned from disgust. Just imagining the things the monster in front of him had committed made his skin crawled.


    The hesitation on his mind went into smoke as he lifted up the greatsword and the red glow on his eyes was even stronger than before.


    Even if I''ve killed you thousand times, I don''t think I''d ever feel guilty doing it.


    "The point is, even if you do have a reason to kill; it wouldn''t stop you from becoming a monster. Sure, you had a reason in killing me now, but..."


    "But what? Just stop talking, you just gave me a reason to kill you, you disgusting monster."


    "No, that''s not what I meant, listen, I meant this..."


    The priest''s words trailed off as he suddenly shouted, "Cipriani now!"


    A blue aura with faint traces of black suddenly engulfed Jeemin as his hand raising the slab of iron aimed at the priest''s head slowed down.