Daru shook his head violently, breathing slightly ragged as he felt unnecessary guilt consuming him.

'No, I'm just being adaptable. If these honorless things would only fight me head-on, I wouldn't have to do this!'

Yes, that's simply it!

He had watched the Lost Damnedlings shamelessly flee to save their own skin almost every time.

Even the one he had just killed in the first abode had tried to escape at the last second, when its head was loosely dangling due to his failing to sever it cleanly in one go.

Daru still felt a little uncomfortable.

However, he was not planning on doing anything else, taking deep breaths — one after another — as he consoled himself.

He was able to convince himself with one word he stumbled upon while rummaging through thousands in his thoughts: survival.

Yes.

He was only trying to survive in the hellscape while having a bit of fun; what's so wrong with that?

With a final deep exhale, Daru expelled the unnecessary thoughts, focusing on the task at hand.

He was not a thief. If he only had a choice, he wouldn't choose to steal stuff in random ancient houses.

But then again, isn't a majority of thieves the same? Would they steal if they had a better option?

Luckily, Daru had already been snapped out of his thoughts before he came to this realization.

Footsteps from the ancient stone path outside.

His gaze sharpened, and he gripped his sword tightly, waiting for the abomination to enter.

The moment its head passed through the doorway, it would be separated from the rest of the body.

Daru wasn't someone who would get nervous in the decisive moment.

However, he couldn't help but furrow his brows, as the Swordspawn he was trying to ambush suddenly stopped in front of the door.

Daru had been lying in wait and didn't make a single noise, so he was quite certain he hadn't been discovered.

But he was quickly proven wrong.

Daru heard a cracking noise behind him, and he quickly jumped back by instinct, avoiding the stab of a bone sword as stone rubble flew and landed deep into the abode, accompanied by a slight thickening of the mist.

He then heard a grating wheeze that seemed all too familiar from outside.

Peering through the massive hole, his eyes met the abomination's, and both sides froze for a moment.

They recognized each other.

It was the bastard that forced him to stay in this god-forsaken place!

'So it was living in this ruined settlement…' Daru mused, a grin with hints of vindictive fury tugging at the corners of his mouth.

He quickly charged at the bastard before it ran.

To his surprise, it didn't and lunged right back at him.

*CLANG!*

A dull clang sounded near the center of the residence as bone clashed with metal, rubble flying everywhere as the hunched abomination directly blasted through the walls, widening the doorway.

"Hoh, what made you suddenly courageous?" Daru taunted, instinctively shooting a glance at the vile spawn's nameplate.

But the Lost Damnedling only hissed in response.

It was now back to around ten thousand hitpoints, which was probably the cause of its sudden boost in bravery.

After all, he had already learned that the bastards would only flee when their hitpoints fell to dangerously low levels.

Daru had thought of a plan earlier, and he planned to try it soon.

Who knew he would get to try it on the most satisfying of targets?

The two stepped back, resetting a fair distance from each other.

It seemed that the Hateful Lost Damnedling was about to rush him again when, suddenly, it froze, then scrambled out of the abode, fleeing back to where it came from in a panic.

Daru's eyes widened in fury at the familiar sight, and he was about to give chase when he heard something else.

Another set of footsteps, this one way heavier compared to the fleeing abomination's, sounding like dull thuds instead.

It came from the opposite direction from where the infuriating spawn fled.

Daru's eyes narrowed.

Since the beginning of his ventures in the ashen domain, he had only encountered two kinds of Swordspawns.

La Filosa and the Lost Damnedlings.

He was certain it was about to be three, and recalling his experience with the bony horror in the massive ruins, Daru decided to hide — as quickly and silently as he could.

He shall see what the spawn was first before deciding if he would challenge it or not.

Daru had learned from his encounter with Kazuraga that he shouldn't just blindly challenge every spawn.

He had to make sure he at least had a sliver of a winning chance, or he would be wasting his life for nothing, as not only would he not learn anything if the gap in attributes were too wide, but he also wouldn't be able to extract any ounce of fun from the encounter.

He would have to move the half-destroyed shelf slightly if he were to use it as a hiding spot.

However, with the unknown spawn being so close, there was a high chance it would hear the echoes of the amplified noise.

Daru slipped beneath the stone bed instead, taking the place of the badly hidden Limbo Celery that he got.

It was fine.

If he had to, he could push himself off the ground and lift the small stone bed on his back with moderate effort.

To his surprise and curiosity, the spawn didn't even stop, continuing with its slightly hasty but still somewhat slow pace as it passed the abode he was hiding in, walking in the direction of the destroyed arch entrance near the collapsed walls.

All Daru could see was its massive, pale grey, ripped legs.

It was almost as thick as an electric pole and was filled with veins and muscles, as though a bodybuilder consistently injecting the secret sauce into his body.

The legs ended in long, demonic nails that irregularly scraped through the stone path with every step it took.

Of course, Daru wouldn't be satisfied with merely the sight of the creature's legs, carefully crawling out from beneath the stone bed.

He made sure to make no notable noise as he peered from behind the widened doorway.

The spawn was every bit as ripped as its legs were.

It stood around seven-and-a-half feet tall, ripped and shredded to the bones.

However, like the Damnedlings, it was hunching, seemingly downcast and not proud of itself, despite its impressive physique.

Perhaps the massive stone greatsword resting on its shoulders was weighing it down.

But with its body, such a burden should've been easy to accommodate. The most interesting part about the hulking spawn, however, was its ears.

Two stone shortswords were stabbed grotesquely in them.

Daru instinctively glanced at its nameplate after taking in its appearance:

==

Rocante, Hearer of False Glory Lv. 63

HP: 40,100 / 80,200

==

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