Talent System: I Instantly Master My Opponents Skills
Chapter 44: Ambushed

Chapter 44: Ambushed

Jason retrieved the last heart from the hobgoblin before adding it to his collection in the space ring.

’The 100 items capacity of the space ring.’

Jason felt like he would soon reach it.

Around him open corpses were littered on the grass like dead flies, their grotesque forms a testament of the cruelness of their attacker. Even the Giant Arachnid Spider was carved open with the help of his katana and Jason retrieved the heart.

Blood oozed out of the big wound he had created, but in turn he got a big heart.

His fingers were bloody and he resolved to go back to the beach to wash his hands clean before continuing.

Not even an hour had passed since he entered the dungeon yet he had already taken down a sub-boss and gathered 50 hearts.

Suddenly, the trees and bushes burned as a fireball flew past the greenery, the orange ball of flames was aimed at him.

The sphere of orange raced towards him, but its size got smaller as it got closer to him.

The fireball crackled, its form becoming smaller as the ball of fire flew towards Jason before being extinguished entirely.

"What the, how?" A voice came from the thickets.

"The spider... How?!"

"If the spider was taken out so easily then what was the thing making those sounds?"

Confusion was the prime emotion the group felt as they got out of came out of the large bushes that covered them.

One of them had just aimed randomly, they didn’t know that it was targetting Jason.

Alaric. Alaric Hachiman.

Jason remembered that name due to his near-perfect memory.

Alaric and five other people arrived in front of him. After they saw the collapsed spider behind Jason their expressions and remarks were incredulous.

Their disbelief was palpable as they stared at the body of the spider, their minds had indirectly filtered out the hobgoblins.

And for good reason, Jason gathered the bodies at a side like he had done with the goblins.

"What do we do now?" One of the members of Alaric’s group asked.

Alaric looked at Jason and the spider and scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"This spider seems to be a sub-boss." Alaric announced, his voice carrying a hint of finality at the obvious.

The expressions of the people next to him didn’t change, instead they only grew more confused.

With the spider dead didn’t it mean that the boy in front of them had killed a sub-boss.

"Is it you that did this?" Alaric questioned, his tone was commanding, it seemed like he was speaking to an equal rather than the person who had killed most of the goblins and the spiders.

"Are you blind? Do you see anyone else here?"

Alaric didn’t get angry instead he pondered.

"Have you taken the heart out of the creature?" He probed further.

"Don’t you see that there’s a hole in the monster."

"Well." Alaric smiled. "We’re giving you a chance, hand over the hearts of all the goblins you killed and the spider, in exchange we’ll let you live."

"You seem to be dying to end up in the same state as the spider." Jason answered.

"Are you sure?" Alaric taunted "In case you’ve forgotten you were the one that killed fifty goblins and the same person that defeated the sub-boss." He was cunning. "You’re breathing is uneven and you seem to be tired from just standing."

If there was anything Alaric wanted, it was the heart of the Giant Arachnid Spider; if he submitted it getting first place wouldn’t be an empty dream.

"Your decision." Alaric’s smile faded. "We’ll take it from you by force."

He wasn’t the only one confident, the rest understood something:

Jason’s body was battered after fighting against the Giant Arachnid Spider, plus he also killed over fifty goblins.

He had just beaten a sub-boss so he wasn’t even supposed to be at a quarter of his original strength, he would need to rest to recover his energy.

This dark-skinned boy was digging his own grave.

"What should we do to him?" A boy whispered to him from the side.

"For now, just kill him. When we’re done, we’ll take his space ring and distribute the heart’s among ourselves."

"Didn’t the elder say we shouldn’t kill?" The girl who had spoken up to Hereon interjected.

"Don’t you want your family to be proud of you?" Alaric tried to convince her. "If you manage to get over 7 hearts won’t your branch family get more favor from the clan?"

The girl stopped speaking after realizing that her voice wouldn’t be heard, if she tried to retaliate they would kill her.

A bright light began forming in the boy who had whispered to Alaric.

A small ball of fire emanating heat slowly began forming in the center of his palms.

Even though Jason had an opportunity to move, he didn’t.

’Fire won’t affect me anyway.’ Jason’s expression remained unchanging, even in the face of the fireball.

The fireball was released, the medium-sized ball of flame was sent hurling towards Jason.

However before it could even come close to hitting him the fireball began to sizzle, in an instant it disappeared.

"What the? How’s it possible?!" The boy shouted.

"... It seems like you don’t have much control over your magic, and that is the reason it burned out before it could hit him."

No.

The boy couldn’t believe it.

He definitely put more than half of his mana inside, even if his control wasn’t good it should have continued until it hit him.

He had a question, but he didn’t get the chance to ask it before another boy walked forward.

"Relax everyone, I got this."

He was an awakened with narrow eyes and brown hair, he went over to Jason and put his arm on Jason’s left shoulder.

"It looks like you don’t understand the situation you’ve got yourself in." He moved his arm to Jason’s neck.

The narrow-eyed’s expression became strange.

’Why can’t I lift him up?’

He used all the strength he could muster as he tried to raise Jason by his neck.

But he felt like he could not, Jason was surprisingly steady and grounded.

Wasn’t this guy supposed to be tired?

The narrow-eye’s brows moistened with cold sweat.

’What’s with this-"

"That’s not how you strangle someone, here, let me show you."

In a quick motion he shifted his stance, Jason stepped hard on the boy’s foot and used his only hand to pull his neck up.

The narrow eyes displayed a look of pure horror as it unfolded.

His head was uprooted from his body, as if it were a weed removed from the ground.

Before a second could pass blood sprayed out beautifully from the neck.

The crimson-red liquid soaked Jason and the head before Jason finally decided to let go of the foot.

*Thud

"F-finn!" A girl who seemed to have known him called out the name of her friend.

The body fell onto the ground as a lifeless body.

The head followed suite.

Shock. That was the only emotion that was shown on the remaining members of Alaric’s group as they witnessed the display before them.

Jason’s expression darkened, his gaze froze his remaining adversaries.

"You all are awakeneds..." A cold aura emanated from his body as the words left his mouth. "...So I hope you’re ready for an eternal slumber."