The First King of Beasts

Although Marcel's skill was straight forward and just needed the consent of the other person, for the legit look, Nathan used his a bit differently. He's was a passive skill, so he just needed to think of the person he wants to test as an enemy, and he would know immediately how much of a treat that person would be to him in the future. With that, he's able to tell how strong an individual will become.

With Marcel's skill, he just had to touch the person receiving the contract, and a mental image of the contract would appear for both parties to go through. If the person wanted to go through with it after reading, all they had to do was indicate with their words, and the contract would be signed. What people didn't know however, was that the paper holding the contract didn't have only one side, it had two.

Except Marcel, no one could see the other side of the contract, not even him the user of the skill could make them see it. On the other side, the details written there were basically those stating that the other party was to become a slave.

Among the more than three hundred people, only about a hundred passed Nathan's check through to Marcel. The rest were just not good enough.

The people Nathan passed were close to a hundred and fifty, but in the end only about a hundred got into their newly formed group. The talk of signing such a contract out of the blue in such an unknown world, not to talk of unknown people had caused some people to change their minds.

Whether these people who had refused the chance to join Marcel's and Nathan's group will regret in future was uncertain. But if they knew of the truth about he's skill, they would probably thank the heavens.

..

Some time passed after that as Marcel was determining the group's course moving forward. He was done, and everything was planned, he then brought Nathan to the side to have a word with him.

"Nathan, come over here for a bit." Marcel said as he walked pass Nathan.

"What is it?"

"How were they? The guys we gained?"

"Nothing note worthy. They're all just so so. But a few of them possess the potential to be at least some worth strong, still nothing special though."

Marcel was a bit disappointed, but he wasn't discouraged. They were only a day in, more people will be found, and if they are lucky, they will find something special.

"This isn't bad either. These ones can still be used in different ways. Let's get moving. We wouldn't want to waste too much time and start lagging behind." Marcel said as he patted his brother on the shoulder and left.

"Yeah. I wouldn't want to be late and receive the penalty." Nathan said.

"Just how long do I need to put up with these disgusting practices?" Nathan said under his breathe as he also went and joined with the new group members.

...

"This place.. I still haven't come across any sizeable water bodies. If it wasn't the piggy, I wouldn't have even found that stream." Dustin said while riding the horned boar.

After his meal, he desperately sort water to quench his thirst and push down the meat, but he couldn't find any. He was lucky to have run into a boar that looked wet and asked for directions to the source of water. Only after did he find enough water to drink and wash up a bit.

The reason Dustin, like many other chose to travel through the forest or near it, instead of the plain fields was the ease of finding food. There were fruits hanging around randomly every now and then, and there was meat. The only danger was the risk of encountering monsters and beast, which they so often did. For Dustin though, the second one didn't affect him at all.

Now that low levelled monsters and beasts no longer gave him any experience points, he just kept his illusion skill activated all the time and walked right passed them, not even bothering to stop for one bit.

Dustin had been on the move since he ate, and it was now moving towards evening as the yellow sunlight was starting to turn orange. He came across a group of five people who were being attacked by a one of those giant rodents he had been seeing around, and they seemed to be losing quite miserably.

He just was about to move passed them, but he then stopped the horned boar to watch them more. Maybe it was because of his life the street where everybody had little regard for human life, as everyone was always trying to survive themselves. Dustin wasn't at all overtaken by any sense or desire to protect his fellow humans and innocent lives. Where he came from, everybody minded their own business.

In fact, the first time Dustin had a near death experience was when he was still very young at about fourteen (14) years of age. If it wasn't for Viper who intervened, he would have been dead a long time ago, and for what, because he stole some bread from a corner shop. There were many people on the street that day, but no one cared to even as much as say a word, everyone just watched while others went about their day like nothing was happening. That was life in the slums and in the poorer part of society.

(This almighty author knows about this life quite well. Tut.)

For Dustin, being a third party only came natural in these type of situations, but this time would be different. Not only did he possess the power, he also noticed a child amongst the fighters. The little girl was around nine or ten, and stood behind everyone.

If the grownups fighting were to fall, which they would eventually, she would be next. Even with this, the people didn't seem too bad that they would die immediately, he thought. Maybe they would be able to escape if they tried a little bit. An injury or many won't be bad either. It would only strengthen their resolve and make them stronger in the long run.

Just as Dustin was contemplating because of the little girl, one of the fighters pushed another one of their group members in front of the rodent that had retreated a bit. As he did, he shouted for the remaining of them to run away, as they did, they left the man and the little girl alone to face the giant rodent, as sacrifice.

"What the? The sacrifice strategy huh? Never used it myself, but it has been used on me quite a lot. Cowards." Dustin said as he watched the four run away.

Seeing them run away, the man that was shoved into the dirt rushed towards the little girl immediately and pushed her behind his back in efforts to protect her. It looked like levelling up hadn't only strengthened Dustin's body, he could hear what the man was saying as he instructed the little girl to run away when he charges at the beast.

Heroic, but stupid. How many times in movies have this exact scene been played out? And it always ended the same way. The child doesn't run away, and they both get killed. Dustin didn't have the opportunity to watch a lot of movies, but even he knew of this one.

"What was that famous quote again? With great power comes great responsibility?" Dustin said, as he jumped off of he's Horned Boar towards the two.

Moments later, the giant rodent charged towards the man and the little girl, but just before the man moved, Dustin appeared before them, while the rodent was completely bashed in the head by Dustin's Horned Boar. One shot was all it took, and the rodent was lying lifeless.

"Don't worry about that, it's all taken care of." Dustin said as he gave the man and girl a small thumbs up accompanied by a little smile.

Seeing the now dead rodent, the man only had one thought.

'We have been saved...'

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