Mass Murder

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My first victim in my previous life is a group of drunken knights. They barged into my shack and demanded that I vacate the place. When I refused, they attempted to resort to violence but one of them accidentally trips on my leg and falls onto a jagged rock. The rock clashed with his head, killing the victim immediately.

Seeing that the wooden door is still intact, the time hasn't gone past that point.

"Ugh..." The feeling of starvation restricts my body from moving, it's been a while since I felt this.

Regardless, I force my body to stand and push the door open. The outside isn't any more pleasant than the shack, most of the buildings are tattered and about to fall apart with many homeless and dirty people loitering on the streets.
Despite the bright sky, the cramped corridor formed an overshadow in the alleyway. This is a place devoid of hope, the street of the slum in the Kingdom of Lupis.

...

I spot a ragged old man on the opposite chomping on a piece of bread. He sits on his laid-out mat and minds his own business peacefully.

I smirk as I snap my fingers.

!!
"Urgh...keh..."
The old man widens his eyes as he grasps his chest, dropping the bread.

"KRAGH!!!" He spits out blood before dropping limply to the floor.

"G-Geezer? What's wrong?!" A ragged beggar with a long beard near the old man asks. The old man's death attracted the attention of everyone nearby as each of them goes up to check on him.

"URAGH!!" Another beggar grips his throat as blood foams at his mouth.

"W-What?!"

The second victim falls dead on the ground. Between the victims and me, a small line of mana forms and is absorbed into my body.

---------------------------
Skill activated: Devour
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Ah yes...this is the feeling!!

The third nearest man falls and the fourth, the mysterious deaths continue like dominoes.

"E-EEK!"

The remaining survivor attempts to run away but still eventually experienced a spike in pain in his stomach, vomiting blood out. "Huh? Huh? W-Why me... I was living my life earnestly..." He falls to the ground, scaring passerby.

Death in the slums isn't unusual with the high number of rogue activities. No one would care if there is a corpse lying around in the middle of the streets. The knights will patrol the streets regularly anyways and they will take care of all the corpses.

I watch from afar, smiling at the delightful sight of his mucus-filled, streams of tears, face.

Now then...

I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I absorb all of their vitality and mana, condensing it around my heart. It's not enough to create a magic circle and advance to a first-star magician but this much recovered my body's malnutrition; the pain of hunger dissipates as well. This is the effect of the skill "Devour", which is many times faster than the normal mana absorbing techniques depending on who I "Devour". The stronger the opponent is, the more I can "eat". Secondly, Devour can absorb the skills of my targets but I've absorbed too many useless ones in my previous life, thus, I wasn't bothered with the second one.

Such a useful innate skill wasn't discovered until I accidentally killed someone, a pity isn't it? To know one's skills and abilities, you need an appraisal skill.

What I did was mana collision, a form of reaction that triggers a chain of explosions. Every human body has a stream of mana in them no matter how minuscule. Of course, when it comes to a stronger opponent, I will have difficulty infiltrating their body and igniting the mana. However, a normal human with no training whatsoever is mere food served on a silver platter.

"Phew..." I mumble.

To be safe, I decided to spread out my hunting radar when I continue and went across the entire slum. Resulting in an unusually high amount of deaths in the slum that day.

When night falls, I return to my shack and await the drunken knights.

...

Among the darkness and silence, I hear footsteps and conversations. There are three people.

"Fuck! I almost hooked up with that bitch, if only that guy didn't stop me." Says one knight.
"Hahaha! You are too ugly anyways." Replied another knight.

The footsteps stop near the shack.

"Hey...look at that pile of shit of a shack."
"Huh...Isn't that the one where a mass suicide happened?"
"Yeah yeah, the report says that there's a boy taking refuge in that 'wasteland'."

!!

"Pfft! HAHAHAHAHA!!"
"How could anyone live inside that shit hole?!"
"Hahahahaha! It smells like a pile of shit smeared everywhere inside that thing."

Wow, the knights are going at it. They don't seem to care about the neighbourhood.

"Let's go play with him a little."

They walk over to the shack.

*BAM*

The door was kicked down swiftly by a smiling drunken knight with a red face. His eyes are half open and closed, as if about to collapse at any moment.
"Hey!" The man at the front says.

...

"Hm? Is that boy not here?" Says the knight behind.

"...What the...maybe that brat ran away, what a killjo-"
Before he could finish his sentence, I jump down from the roof and decapitate him.

"H-Huh?" The second knight mumbles.

*thud*

The head rolls to his companion's feet and his body falls to the ground. A wave of mana has materialized into a sword around my arm.

!!!!

"Y-You!"

That immediately sobered both remaining knights as they attempt to reach for their swords at their hips. However, with one quick slash and both their arms fly into the sky.

"A-Ah...ARGHHH!!!!" They scream in pain, dropping to the ground and wriggling.

I smile. "Instead of rolling around on the floor, you should have spent the time running. What a pity."

I sweep my hand and amputate the legs of the second knight.
"KRAUGHHSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" The cries of the second knight echo throughout the night. Mucus and tears continuously roll down his face of despair.

Amazing! Show me more!

The third knight, with gritted teeth, got up with his armless body and attempts to run away.

My smile becomes wider. A wave of crescent mana appears behind the escaping prey, severing his tendons.

"ARGHHHHH!!!"

With that, I slowly walk towards the third knight.

*thud* *thud* *thud*

To the knight, my footsteps are as loud and terrifying as a predator.
"N-No... Please... Let me live... I won't tell anyone about this." The third knight mumbles.

I squat down until he can see me, his face turns pale immediately after seeing the monstrous exhilaration on my face.

Ah... I should calm down. I adjust my face to a light smile before continuing.

"The reason why I haven't amputated your legs is for the ease of dragging you back," I whisper.

"Ah...haha...ah...you psychopath..." Says the third knight, tears dripping off his chin, a despair-filled demeanour.

I grab hold of his leg and pull the third knight into the shack. As for the second knight...well, he passed out from blood loss and pain, about to die.

"Just kill me." Says the third knight.

"Don't be in such a rush, I will take my time with you," I say.

"No! Please! Just! Kill me!!! ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGHHGG!!!!!!!!"

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