I Hate Systems

It had been seven years since he became a slave to the Demon Princess. During this time, he was trained by the other Human slaves, allowing him to grow by leaps and bounds, already becoming a Grandmaster by the tender age of 15.

And among her slaves, he was the most noteworthy, especially since the Demon Princess had made the largest concession for him—leaving his village alone and even providing it protection.

Of course, in response to that, he had to perform every dirty task that had been handed to him, including the killing of important human nobles that played a pivotal role in the resistance of the humans against the Demon Empire.

The place they were on was known as the Felera Continent, a gigantic continent in the Fantasy World whose area was almost equal to the surface area of Earth.

And this continent was currently being invaded by the Demons that had only occupied a small portion of the continent's west in the past.

There were a variety of races that lived on this continent, mostly balanced in power. But things changed when the Demon Race produced their first Saint, called the Saint of Calamity.

As the first Saint to be birthed on this continent, in the world itself, the power dynamic of the continent changed abruptly, causing the Demon Race to grow stronger with the passing of every day, so much so that they began to spill out into the territory of the other races.

And as one of the races with the greatest fertility, the human race of course faced the impact early on as at least a couple of Kingdoms fell to ruin.

But the various Human Kingdoms joined hands with the other races to mount a joint alliance against the Demons, sparking a grand continental war.

After the initial shock, the Demon Race was somewhat getting pushed back, but that was only until the Tamers began to move.

They tamed those from the other races like Gilthru, causing them to infiltrate their respective Kingdoms to wreak havoc from within.

Currently, Gilthru's mission was to kill the girl that had been in the carriage, a child with the potential to reach the peak of the Pseudo-Saint Stage and maybe even surpass it to become a Saint.

Therefore, before she could mature, she had to be killed. And of course, they couldn't just send Pseudo-Saints to do the task, for all Pseudo-Saints from the Demon Race were marked by Pseudo-Saints from the other races.

And, infiltrating deep into the Human Kingdom like this wasn't easy. They had to rely upon Gargi's formations to hide their auras and gradually make their way through the border.

This was why their group couldn't be too big. And considering the high success rate Gilthru had in his previous missions, it was predicted that he would pull off this high-risk mission too.

Unfortunately, things didn't play out like that as the enemy seemed strange and more talented than him, despite being the same age.

"Let's…retreat," Gilthru said in the end, having no other option but to do so as they had already lost their Cartographer. Without him, they were in the blind while moving, making things riskier.

…

Klak-kat-ta!

Klak-kat-ta!

Metallic sounds resounded every time the hooves of the horse hit the hard rocks on the ground. The metallic horse continued to run before suddenly, it stopped abruptly, turning inanimate, as if it was just a statue now.

"The horse died." A feminine voice resounded as the girl in the carriage alighted and arrived before the horse, gently patting it, "I didn't want to use that magic. It's too cruel."

Her eyes reddened, staring at the detailed expression of the horse, observing that in its final moments, it had been struggling to breathe as more and more of its body turned metallic.

Unfortunately, her ultimate magic had a limited duration of effect before the target turned into metal completely, ending up as a sculpture.

"Zaira, you didn't have a choice back then. Hadn't you done that, all three of us would have died." The middle-aged man, her father spoke, wiping his sweat with a kerchief as his eyes darted about, still nervous, afraid of other thugs ambushing them.

"I understand…" Zaira sulked in response, not having the heart to repeat the same again. She had personally taken care of the two horses that pulled their carriage and hence was heartbroken.

The first horse was killed from the impact to its stomach by Gilthru while the second turned into metal due to her magic.

So, she was sad.

"Zaira, can you search for any wild horses that we can use?" Her father, Baord asked, jittery as he was only a Master Metal Mage. And unlike the usual Master Metal Mages, he hadn't been training much, so his combat experience was lacking.

That was why he wasn't able to do anything during the previous ambush, his only option was to twiddle his thumb and stare at everything in fluster.

"Let me search…" Zaira said as runes flashed around her, causing her aura as a Master to leak out as a subtle wind rippled out of her, acting as a sonar that allowed her to grasp the structure of everything in place.

A minute later, she pointed in a certain direction, "I found something that looks like a horse in this direction."

"Is it not a horse?" Baord expressed his worry.

"I'm not exactly sure." Zaira shook her head, "I felt some mana fluctuation from its body. So, it might be a Magic Beast variant of a horse. But I can't say for sure. Its overall shape and size still resembles a horse though."

"Then…" Baord stared at the boy standing beside them in silence all along, guarding them. Upon observing the crystal-clear eyes of the boy, Baord asked, "Can you scout it out? Return the moment it seems dangerous."

"I'll do that." The boy nodded as he condensed a bow and arrow made out of metal and began to walk in the direction Zaira pointed at, "Please be seated inside the carriage until I return. This place doesn't seem safe."

"Be careful," Zaira expressed her concern, staring at the boy's confident back, "Don't be reckless, Arnark."

"I'll keep it in mind." The boy waved his hand and vanished into the woods.