Awakening of the Weakest Slayer-Chapter 128: Apology

Soon, The sun's rays started disappearing below the horizon and darkness crept slowly, swallowing the ravaged city whole. The horizon bled into a murky purple haze before the void pushed through, taking everything with it.

Tonight was different. No comforting glow from the usual trio of moons. All three were hidden somewhere behind thick, brooding clouds that churned across the sky like spectral beasts.

The wind howled through broken streets and shattered buildings, playing cruel melodies across glassless windows. It was a breathless darkness, draped over the city like a shroud.

The dark had hidden almost all light, except the ghostly glow of the Spirit Essence that was not so abundant because of Spirit Beasts eating most of them.

Sometimes Sezel even thought... how did they even munch at the hard crystal, but then again their teeth's are more than enough explanation.

Max, Emili, and Alex hadn't returned from the hunt.

The hunting would usually take about three days. The reason being so that they could collect enough meat and ingredients to last at least two weeks or maybe even more.

Efficiency was their goal, but rarely did things go smoothly. Well of course, hunting in a ruined city, filled with Beasts that could scrap you in a minute was not that ideal.

'And today with little to no light, it will be hard for them.'

If they returned in just one day, it wasn't good—it meant they had to hunt every day. That was the last thing anyone wanted.

Constant hunting drained the body, frayed nerves, and most terrifying of all, increased exposure to the beasts lurking just beyond their fragile haven.

Sezel watched from his balcony, leaning against the cold railing of what remained of the luxurious hotel's upper floors.

His lips twisted into a small, knowing smirk.

It's finally time.

Sezel raised his empty hand in the air and a pair of sleek looking glasses came into existence out of nowhere.

He placed the glasses over his eyes and in that moment everything changed.

The darkness dissolved and the city lit up. Or rather, his vision did.

Where pitch black once swallowed everything in fearful ignorance, now details leapt forth as if painted by some unseen hand in shades of glowing indigo and emerald.

At first glance, they were simple, sleek black frames that looked like they belonged on some overly exuberant hipster in an abandoned city. But these glasses were far from ordinary.

They were a gift from his his first kill in this brutal Spirit Realm. Crafted from materials he barely understood, these enchanted lenses allowed him to pierce through darkness and look through it.

'I almost forgot i had these.' Sezel let out a proud laugh.

They were just there getting junk in his inventory. Sezel did barely remembered that there existed such a thing within his card.

He saw it once and then forgot about it in the middle of his struggles to live.

Inventory was like a personal locker provided by the card besides showing his stats. It held all the things he had received from absorbing the beasts cores.

One night, while Sezel was casually cursing at his stats, when his eyes found a small, almost ignorable arrow on the top left corner.

And only then did he realize that the card was more than just a system screen, it was literally a Pandora Box. There in his inventory he found more than he would have ever imagined.

Alongside the glasses were more treasures and oddities. A lot of useless things filled most of his inventory space.

But among them there were some high level treasures worth using.

An invisibility cloak, or something remarkably close: a garment that blended perfectly with darkness, rendering the wearer almost invisible in night's embrace.

Isn't that a marvel?

There were more like a blade, it was just a piece of metal given shape for Sezel, it wasn't even sharp.

And a weird but resilient looking armor, no matter how sturdy it was Sezel never tried it on.

'Yeah only a dumbass will move around in that thing.'

It was too big for a human of his size and then the worst part, it was made up of some beasts carcass, horrifying isn't it.

Sezel hovered his gaze over to the Cloak and a menu appeared in front of him.

--

Name - Shadow Cloak

Rank- 3

Attachments - Suppress (Hides the bloodlust, fighting Spirit and the presence all together.)

Details - The cloak woven from the shadows themselves. It was the precious companion of the greatest assassin of Shelenore, the stealthy and magical cloak provides the user with near invisibility in shadows. Just like a seasoned assassin.

--

Sezel grinned weirdly at the descriptions, no matter how many time he would read it it won't change his mind... never.

'Being an assassin is the worst... i mean yeah its cool and all but, they live under constant pressure of being caught and dying in a mission. Not my type at all.'

Not that he was going to be one, the description didn't matter at all. The Cloak itself was one of the best things he had gotten.

He teased himself with the thought as he summoned it now. His breathing slowed, focusing on that mental image.

Like magic, spirit energy spiraled around him in smoky wisps, shaping itself with divine precision—fitting his frame perfectly, a cloak woven from shadows themselves.

Sezel smiled and then exhaled. The city below remained a landscape of decay and danger.

Broken streets. Crumbled walls. Beast calls screaming in the distance like terrifying lullabies for a world lost to chaos.

He had learned the ways of the dangers here, the monsters that roamed these streets. These were not the common fodder that fought for scraps, but the enhanced creatures honed by Spirit Realm's malevolent hand.

Every corner held potential death. Every shadow promised a challenge.

The monsters here were no joke. And on the other hand, in front of these beasts, Sezel was nothing but...

A joke.

Leaving all that behind, he might be a joke but not harmless.

It was his daily routine, after everyone slept, in the darkness he woke up and went in the ruined city al by himself.

Not to hunt, but to find some clues of where he was and how to get out from here. He was not inclined on staying at this place until he died... like those idiots claimed.

Furthermore, he hadn't seen Vesta and Mari for so long. He was worried about them... not about Vesta perhaps, he was sure she would live through anything and Shiki too.

But deep down, he longed to see the little smile of Mari's face and Vesta's calm ruby eyes.

His expression darkened, he didn't even knew where were they, not to mention in this place all of his theories have always utterly... failed.

'No... Vesta and Mari are alive, i know it. Well...after all she killed my hard earned Rank-5 puppet.' He let out a tired and disappointed sigh.

'But, hey... I don't hate her for that.'

Suddenly his face lit up as he remembered something, delightful... maybe.

He raised his hand to the side and grinned, from ear to ear.

"Come forth, my friend."

As he called out, the Spirit Energy escaped his body along with a core that manifested in his hand out of nowhere.

The misty black and purple energy swirled around the core and then sticked together, taking form.

The normal process of how his puppets came out.

The process looked slightly complicated, but in truth it only took less than a second for his puppet to completely form.

Soon, from the darkness emerged what could only be described as an abomination of pure fear.

It stood, two meters long, sprawling in grotesque majesty across the balcony floor. The creature had a lithe, muscular body covered in black and purple scaled skin made up of Spirit Energy.

It looked like... a twisted monkey, or some chimera, but its face was where the real terror lay.

Two viciously long fangs stretched from its jaws like daggers that could make a grown man piss his pants.

Eyes? No visible eyes. Just two slits beneath a ridge of spiked fur, twitching like it sensed more than it revealed.

It was ugly. Clumsy and fierce. The perfect nightmare companion for going inside the ruined city.

Sezel's lips curled in grim satisfaction.

An abomination, yes. And this is my ride.

The beast growled softly, bowing its head slightly in respect to Sezel—an unspoken pact between master and puppet.

A screen appeared in front of Sezel.

--

[Puppet - Mountain Terror]

[Category - Enhanced]

[Rank - 5]

[Transferable abilities - None ]

--

Without hesitation, Sezel vaulted onto its back, his fingers sinking into the beast's coarse fur

The beast looked towards the railing, while Sezel took in a quick look of the ruined city, and with a mental command he ordered the beast to jump off to the destroyed city.

And without hesitation, the beast did as ordered. Plunging into the darkness below.