After advising Seto and his daughter to stay at home, I dashed outside.

It was pitch dark. But thankfully I had the Night Visionskill.

When I looked up to the source of the cries up in the sky, I saw dozens of villagers had been captured by the gargoyles. They were being eaten alive.

Occasionally, some liquid fell down like rain. It was the villagers blood.

Those that had been captured could no longer be saved.

I drew the black sword Greed, intending to intercept a gargoyle that was about to swoop down from the sky. Appraisalskill quickly did its work.

GargoyleNoirLv27

Endurance: 890

Strength: 760

Magic: 1390

Spirit: 1230

Agility: 980

Ability: Flame Bullet Magic

This thing could even use fire magic. It can proof to be a problem if they stay midair. I instantly changed the sword in to bow form.

I preemptively attacked one of the GargoyleNoir who were chewing on a persons stomach. The magic arrow was not hindered by the dark of the night, accurately found its way penetrating between the eyes of the gargoyle.

Gluttony skill activated

Durability+890, Strength+760, Magic+1390, Spirit+1230, Agility+980 will be applied to your stats

Flame Bullet Magic has been added to the ability list.

Oh, I acquired my first ever magic.but its not the time to be happy.

That gargoyle noir that had been shot fell down along with the villagers corpse right in front of me in a wet sound. This villager.turned out to be the village chief who had ordered to make me into a sacrifice.

The man who could give evacuation order, and the only one who the other villagers will comply to had died. No matter what I or Seto said, they wont hear it for sure.

The other gargoyle didnt budge even if one of them was killed. On the contrary, they were already intoxicated by the taste of human flesh, and attack only so that they could have more.

At that moment, Greed warned me.

Fate, rain of magic attack is incoming Quickly change in to scythe form

I changed Greed into scythe form as told, and jumped to Setos house roof in order to protect it.

At once, the sky was set ablaze. There were at least 30 flame bullets.

Aiming at the village, they fell like meteors.

Simultaneous use of 30 fire magics by the gargoylesburned a wide range area. Such a frightening coordination.

Everything that was directly hit by it, burned so easily.

Not all of them landed though. I managed to block two that were about to hit Setos house with my black scythe.

As soon as it touched the scythe, the magic disappeared without trace.

Greed had said so himself back then, that it can cut almost anything effortlessly. It even can cutdown an activated skill, something that it couldnt do before.

I could easily cut off the gargoyles flame bullet, dispelling it entirely. But its different case with the skills indirect effects after it has successfully hit. For instance, I couldnt douse the burning house caused by the skill through cutting the flame with the scythe alone.

Anyways, with this kind of ability, I felt invincible while wielding this scythe.

After all, the scythe showed remarkable advantage against magic.

When I looked around, the village was ablaze, it had become bright like daylight. From inside those burning houses, villagers rolling out on the ground trying to put out the flames on their body.

Waiting for this opportunity, the gargoyles swooped down to attack.

No more than half of the total amount of villagers had survived the attack. Even so the gargoyles still greedy for more. They are now eyeing Setos house which was the only one untouched by the flame.

This made it easier for me to settle.

The 30 gargoyle shot flame bullets simultaneously toward Setos house where I stood guard.

I might be able to prevent two from hitting before, but 30 at once should be impossible for me to block, or so they thought.

The flame bullets converged, racing toward me directly.

Here, Ill show them what I have gained from having repeatedly hunting goblins in the capital.

[Greed, ready? Ill use that.]

I can do it, what Im worried about is youlets try it.

I threw the black scythe toward the flock of the gargoyle, spinning it with all my might.

Due to the curses on its blade, the 30 flame bullets were quickly dispelled as it blast through it. In addition, it also tore down the gargoyles standing by behind the magic.

The scythe who had finished its role returned back to me like a boomerang. This was it.the result of my repeated practice.

The 28 gargoyles whod been torn apart fell over on the vicinity of Setos house.

Gluttony skill activated

Endurance+24920Strength+21280Magic+38920Spirit+34440Agility+27440 will be applied to your stats

There were only 2 remaining. But, as a monster that liked to attack in a group, they took an expected action. They quickly turned tail and ran away.

[Trying to run?!]

I quickly changed the scythe into a bow, and promptly downed them with 1 shot.

While hearing the stats addition from devouring the 2 GargoyleNoirs, I switched my bow back to scythe form.

This kind of group, there must be a leader.

And yet, I hadnt seen it till now.

Fate, above

[Yeah, I know]

While spewing fireballs at me, a big black shadow came down from the sky.

Appraisal skill quickly determine its identity.

GargoyleNeoLv47

Endurance: 12890

Strength: 11760

Magic: 23390

Spirit: 23230

Agility: 12980

Ability: Flame Bullet Magic, Fire resistance.

Different from the little ones, it even dared to launch its fire magic at close range to defeat me.

The magic power was also stronger than the gargoyle noir. I see, the fire resistance allowed for this kind of battle tactic.

However, its still just a monster. It fought mainly out of instinct, yet still unaware of the black scythes power?

The gargoyle neo attempted to burn down Setos house. It approached in terminal velocity.

At zero distance, in that moment the black scythe is swung. The gargoyle neo was split in two before it could launch another fireball.

Its was split in two halves as it passed by me, and fell to ground rightafter.

Gluttony skill activated

Endurance+12890Strength+11760Magic+23390Spirit+23230Agility+12980 will be applied to your stats

Fire Resistance has been added to the skill list

With this I obtained my second flame-based skill. Through Appraisal I found out that Fire Resistance reduced the damage caused by Fire Magic by half. Too bad, since that meant its only limited to magic damage.

Thanks to eating those gargoyles, the Gluttony skill had satiated. The hurting in my right eye vanished, and I felt that my condition was tip top.

Meanwhile the village itself was in miserable state. All other houses except for Setos had been burnt down. The gargoyles fireballs had burnt the land into charred black.

The cost of the fight was huge, the surviving villagers who managed to crawl out from the burnt houses were suffering from awful burns.

I could confirm 4 survivors from the roof where I stand. Including me, Seto, and his daughter, thats only 7 people left.its impossible to maintain the village with only that amount of people.

Watching the still smoldering houses, I felt somewhat ashamed.

Those complex feelings from when I was a kid are burning out like those house, and what remained in me was only its ashes.

Somehow, I felt an empty hole in my chest.

While I was sitting on the roof watching the flame burns indiscriminately, Seto came out of his house. He then said when he saw me.

[Fate, what on earth is this]

[We were attacked by a group of gargoyles. I barely able to fight while protecting this house, but I managed to fight them off. There was a wide ranged fire attack.]

I focused back to the village as I spoke. Hearing nothing else from Seto, I assumed that he was too surprised to say anything else. His daughter forgot to cry, she clung to her fathers foot not wanting to be separated.

It was a bad village. But after its gone, the pain in my chest disappeared. It was replaced by an unspeakable emptiness in my heart.

Perhaps, could I say this was me feeling nostalgic..? No idea.

But there was one thing that was clear to me. Today, I had completely lost my hometown.

=====