My Devourer System: Rise of the Bastard Son

The carriages slowed down as the road quality deteriorated. Soon Lucen couldn't relax as the previous ignorable bumps kept jolting him, and the bumps grew worse.

Liam also gave up on channelling, cursing. "Can we fucking stop moving?"

Their heads bobbed up and down with the rise and fall of the road. Long fields of green grass surrounded them. Lucen could sense things moving through the grass, too scared to attack directly, just waiting for someone to get left behind.

"That's enough channeling anyway," Lucen said. "You'll only hurt your soul if you continue."

"I feel perfectly fine," Liam complained. "Besides, you absorb a huge cloud of mana in two minutes. I've been channeling drops for an hour."

"The amount doesn't matter, you're just stressing your mind at this point."

"I need to cast my first spell before we get to the Withering forest."

Lucen laughed. "Then you have plenty of time, it'll take a week to get there at this pace."

The Withering forest was home to Basilisks and lesser monsters. Anything strong enough to live there was at least Stalker-rank. Basilisks were surprisingly actually dragons, albeit Lesser dragons.

Dragons were divided into two categories: Elder and Lesser.

Elder dragons were old, massive beasts whose very existence twisted the world and made men run mad. They were characterized by their ability to fly despite their enormous size.

Lesser dragons were born from drops of blood left behind by Elder dragons. Each of them was a malformed version of their progenitors but still incredibly dangerous. Basilisks could turn anyone who looked into their eyes to stone.

It was an almost incurable condition. The only spell that Lucen had read about that could reverse this was a Heroic-rank Divine spell that reversed damage rather than healed it.

They had one spell they could use to manage it, however. Ymir received a spell from Alger himself—a spell that marked an enemy; once this enemy was killed, all damage they did would be nullified.

It was a High-rank spell that she was struggling to master. They needed her to perfect it before they reached the Withering forest.

He originally thought Divine magic was about maintaining order, but now he realised it was more about subverting causality and mastering the world.

Lucen turned over to Liam, who was still grumbling about the carriages shaking.

Liam mastering a spell didn't matter much to anyone but him. He crawled to the edge of the carriage and put his head down so he could look inside.

"Kon, pass me my bow, please."

After retrieving the bow, Liam turned to him. "Gimme one of the arrows."

"No. Fuck off."

"What did I do this time?" Liam grumbled. "I want to shoot one of the monsters following us."

Lucen sighed, shaking his head in exasperation. "You didn't do anything. Yet. It's just a waste of arrows, and you could put us in trouble by mistake."

"The beasts are timid, at least that's what I sensed. They are getting close. I want to practice using the bow's [Retrieval] skill."

[Retrieval] made Liam's arrows return after they were shot. Liam's bow was High-rank for some reason. But it wasn't soul-bound, so he had to lug it around.

The bow's first skill, [Feather Draw], made the string easier to draw depending on how strong the user was. It was a godsend with Liam's scrawny arms.

The second skill was [Retrieval]. The third enhanced his shots with mana—this one Lucen had to test himself as Liam's [Dominance] wasn't high enough yet.

Lucen was shocked to see that the second skill even worked for Liam. You needed at least Minor-rank [Dominance] for that, and Liam was still barely Low-rank.

It could have something to do with his dad, but Lucen thought telling Liam would make his obsession worse.

Not that Liam didn't already believe that.

Lucen ignored him until Liam punched him. Lucen rose and grabbed his arm before he could escape and started punching back.

"Ow, stop. I only hit once."

"Sorry, I forgot," Lucen paused, releasing him. "Oh, and about the monsters. Your mana sense is too weak to understand the situation. There are a lot more of them than us."

Liam blanched, glancing around and squinting his eyes. Lucen punched the back of his head.

"Don't use your eyes, interpret what you perceive with Mana sense in your mind."

Liam rubbed the back of his head. "It's hard, the shapes… I can't even describe them."

Lucen's brow wrinkled. He forgot that it took him almost eight years of nonstop training as a baby to properly make sense of the world with [Mana Sense].

"Anyway, you shouldn't shoot them. They are used to caravans having multiple Knights, and even Grand Knights, to protect them. Once they realise we aren't as strong they'll attack."

Liam lowered his bow, grimacing. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it. What you should worry about is that pitiful punch. Have you been doing the exercises I taught you?"

Liam laughed nervously, and Lucen punched him once more.

When he trained under Warren, the training methods were painful and not as effective as the ones in his former world.

Back then,he was once obsessed with bodybuilding and fighting, until he got bored and went back to being a bum.

But that was his natural state. His life was so much better when he didn't have anything to do.

Lucen turned forward suddenly. The first carriage had stopped. Lucen tapped the top of the canvas and removed Liam's quiver and arrows from his space ring in a brief flash of white light.

Liam stared at him for a moment, confused. "I thought we weren't causing trouble."

There was a loud bang in front of them.

A cloud of dust rose and multiple shapes began to cut through the high grass.

Lucen smiled at Liam. "Even if you don't go finding problems, they can always just get up and look for you."

He rose to his feet, white linen clothes flapping in the wind. A silver spear appeared in his open hand.