Chapter 40: I want to be like him
Lucen stared at the severed head. His blade lowered, breath steady... But his heart wasn’t.
The look in Rugar’s eyes before the end... It wasn’t hate, it was some sort of release. That was not the face an evil villain should have as he died, it wasn’t the face he was expecting to see... While Lucen was still processing what had happened, the sound of the system rang in his ears.
[Level Up]
[Passive Skill: Gun Kata (Rank Up)]
(Novice) → (Intermediate)
Lucen felt the minor increase in his stats upon leveling up. He had once again grown stronger, but he felt no satisfaction on leveling up at this point.
Lucen stood there, unmoving, deep in thought. The feeling of the power from level-up already fading, but the heaviness in his chest refused to go. He hadn’t killed Rugar to level up, to gain power, but the system did not care for such things.
He looked at the head of his fallen enemy. Rugar was indeed a b*stard of a man, but for some reason, the man Lucen saw at the end was someone Lucen couldn’t hate.
***
Seeing their leader had fallen, the other bandits lost the will to resist and simply surrendered. Once they were sure that they had killed or captured every bandit, they released the villagers trapped in cages.
Milos had watched it all, from behind the trees, frozen, useless, and terrified. He was in awe at the way Lucen fought, a child younger than him, fighting a giant of a man with a weapon that was triple Lucen’s size, yet he fought against them without backing down.