The Ruined Death Knight

[You received 12 000 XP]

Pulling the now bloody blade from the man's neck out he fell to the ground with a shocked expression still frozen in his face.

I blankly stared at the dead body for quite some time before sheathing the Veren blade back to his sheath.

"Sigh, killing guys like him sure is profitable... he saved me six hours of long work," Danzel mumbled to himself while staring at the notification window strangely.

The amount of XP has been always been weird in his opinion.

Though he understood that in a real fight you were putting your own life at risk, the rewards of winning the fight were above anything else.

It was as if the status itself was encouraging him to begin a damn genocide for the sweet nectar that was called XP..

In a less than a five minutes fight gave him the rewards of six hours' worth of carving runes!

"At least that guy isn´t like that arsonist freak..." Although the XP that this Bald Fist had given him was much more than the Rapha guy back then, the fight against that damn arsonist was much more rememberable than this one.

In his opinion, that guy in front of was way much weaker than Rapha.

In comparison to the bloody knight swordsmanship and magic, that guy was just a brute.

If it weren´t for the fact that Rapha had the curse on him and me being physically stronger than him I couldn´t imagine how I could have won that fight.

Heck, that revival thing that he did on the end costed almost my life!

Compared to this brute who showed all his abilities strength, limitation, and reliance on a single ability right of the start, the fight itself felt easier.

Heck, if you can´t even revive from your death you might as well be a joke!

Pathetic!

Shaking his head from all the useless thoughts, he looked towards all the cages around him.

"One...three....five..."

`Ten cages in total... there might be more than one hundred people here.´ Gazing at the slaves he fell in deep thoughts while without noticing, his hand was already rubbing the hilt of Veren.

The slaves who were already anxious enough from the current follow of events became even the more anxious from seeing the dark knight glancing at them with a not so warm of a look.

"Should I do it..?" That thought was rooted inside Danzel's mind.

But when the group of dwarfs came to this line of sight, he moved his hand away from the hilt.

"Rather not..." Moving towards the cages he was soon met with praises.

"Damn, you guy! Do my eyes trick me or am I seeing rune in that sword!"

"Not only that, but those pair of gauntlets must be too! Did you see that glow of before!?"

"You are quite strong my guy! Now tell me, does your armor also have runes in it!?"

Those praises though were more aimed at my equipment...

Seeing that I was glaring at them like a statue, Gerak had put a wry smile on his face.

"Sorry Danzel, that just who were are." Scratching the back of his neck he looked at Danzel slightly awkwardly.

"Ehm... can you open the cage?"

"..."

Grabbing the metal bars of the cage, they shortly snapped.

"Wow! You my guy got some muscles under that heavy-looking armor of yours!"

"Truly amazing."

Coming out of the cages, they were amazed by the dark knight's strength and grateful for his help.

They were originally the group who came to the kingdom of Berum to finish their trial given from their faction in the dwarf kingdom. 

With their trial soon coming to end, they were in a period of preparing their works to showcase to their elders.

What they didn´t know though was that they were the last patch of blacksmith doing the trial in Berum.

Through the recent war that has taken place, the three factions of the dwarf kingdom decide to avoid sending their future blacksmiths to kingdoms plagued with war.

And for those knowing that in the market they are fewer weapons to sell with even more demand. They would always be someone who would want a piece of that very market.

Even if that method is slavery.

One had to know that the occupation of the blacksmith wasn´t all that common. Though ten dwarfs weren´t much, their quality cover the quantity.

With their skills being so good, finding a buyer amongst the armies of either the Berum or the Arcana Kingdom would have been a piece of cake.

Considering those facts, they were a hot target for slavers out there.

"Hey Gerak, let´s go already. We don´t know when others from them will come and with my mana mostly depleted, I ain´t confident to win against another group. I need you to get me another patch from those guys to continue my work anyways." Danzel said while scanning his surroundings in case he missed something.

"Danzel, though the time working together I realized how smart of a mind you have, but you know... sometimes you really stupid you know that?" Gerak said earnestly.

Hearing that, Danzel turned around and glanced at Gerak in silence. Just the high difference between those two make Gerak seem like a child towards the two-meter-high Danzel.

"What do you mean by that?" He said with a chilling voice while starring directly at Geraks eyes.

The other dwarf who saw this fell silent.

Gerak though just shrugged his shoulders as he was used to his cold side.

"Do I need to spell it out to you? Such a large amount of slaves could never go unnoticed in a place like Bernes. And now tell me, how do you think that that guy got away from it?"

`Right, carrying so many slaves around and carrying them inside the capital would never go unnoticed even if the guards are being bribed constantly. And now that the gates have become more secure, hiding the slaves is next to impossible. Except if...´

"Do they have a backer behind them?" Danzel asked.

"You really are smart indeed..." Gerak said with a small smile on his face.

"There has indeed a backer, at that's that noble scum who oversees the slums," Gerak said with his voice full of disdain.

"I see..." Danzel nodded with understanding, but the dwarf who saw this shortly shook this head.

"No, you don´t understand. That noble scum is the one behind all this, and with you creating such a big mess it will never go unnoticed from the army and the thugs of the noble." Gerak said while getting closer to this side.

"Though there aren´t many like us dwarf who can recognize runes, but there should be a few people who can recognize them among the slaves. And if the army were to hear this, they might figure that you are the runesmith they were searching for. If that were to happen they might blame you for the crimes from those scums and work you to death." Gerak whispered with a serious tone.

Hearing that made Danzel look at the slaves around them with slight killing intent.

And though by chance, when he turned around to see the slaves, his gaze stopped at the annoying woman from before.

"Hiie!" The woman who was shortly met with the bloodlust from the dark knight shortly fell back to her butt out of horror.

 Gerak who notice Danzel Bloodlust put a frown on his face.

"Danzel, we don´t have much time. If the army comes here there is no way that they will let us walk free after they know our identity."

`Ugh... to think that I would feel a headache as an undead...´ Danzel cursed internally.

Though he didn´t really feel any headache, the situation that he was in was annoying enough to make it feel like having one.

While Danzel was in his deep thoughts searching for a solution for this mess, Gerak whispered something to the other dwarfs before turning to Danzel.

"Hey Danzel, we will be leaving the kingdom of Berum and go back to our homeland. After everything that happend, we got to report back imminently and let out elders know. If you want you can come with us to the dwarf kingdom" Gerak said earnestly.

"And how can I trust you guys? Wouldn't my situation be the same if I go with you guys?" Danzel answer instantly with a hind of mocking behind his tone.

"I ain't really into choosing the lesser demon among two demons. I would rather try my chances alone."

The dwarfs slightly down hearing the dark knight calling their homeland to be akin to a demon.

'He still doesn't trust me...' Breakthrough internally.

"There isn't a need for you to come to our kingdom if you wish so. We can just leave the capital together and move to our path afterward. I have some connection who can help us out while having you will put us at ease against the monster."

Seeing that what the dwarf had said to make sense, he looked at the dwarf rather conflicted.

'Should I choose to trust him...'