2 - Choices, Choices

A weird silence hung in the air, thick enough to cut through.

Oh, he was well aware. And he definitely knew that I was onto him.

He was going to make good use of those passive skills, especially the harem-related ones. That was a given.

As for me, I had to nail down my own role in this place.

Choices, choices: summon spirits, wield magic, stealth as an assassin, make everyone submit as a holy paladin, aim as an archer, command beasts, or craft runes.

Being just a sword wielding knight was the weakest in this world.

Yet, with my Hard Swing Skill, and 0 talents or passives in the arcane arts, becoming such a warrior was the only path for me.

But, even paired up with someone as exceptional as my friend, I had my own trump card.

It was the Dark Soul skill—it was what made me indispensable. I was immortal; I revived at every death. That's when the capital's royal knights had a bright idea: train me relentlessly, push me to my limits, and sometimes, train me to death.

This was all before Magus and I set out on our grand journey. While he honed his skills with the mages, paladins, summoners, beast tamers, and runemasters—and bagged all the female instructors without breaking a sweat—I fucking peed blood on a daily basis.

Envy was an understatement when I learned his first time was with the voluptuous, hot elven MILF Beastmaster, she even let him live in her house while she trained him, the fucker.

Meanwhile, I was stuck in the knight's barracks, just a constant sausage fest. They trained me way harder than they should have, because of my friend's passives - the King himself personally allowed that one.

Magus could charm any woman he wanted. Even the queen favored him, and because of that, I got the backlash.

They'd take out their frustrations on me, some even torturing me to death, including the King himself that one time, while screaming about how unfair it was that he got all of those skills.

His passives made his training a breeze, whereas mine was like a constant shit-eating competition. It was so rough, at some point, I stopped getting scared of dying.

Yet, despite the hardships I've been through, I wasn't nearly as powerful as him. The only reason I got to join him was that he persuaded the queen to allow it.

At that moment, I was actually grateful for his overpowered passives. Without them, I'd have been stuck as the eternal sparring partner—no, the ultimate, immortal punching bag for those cursed knights and that damned King.

I should give them some credit, though. Thanks to their relentless training—piercing, slashing, and carving me up until I died and respawned—my muscles regenerated stronger each time I revived.

Incredibly, I developed a lot of highly condensed muscle all the while losing all of my body fat in a very short time, allowing me to fit comfortably into compact armor.

Each time I opened my status window after dying, I could see my Vigor, Strength, and Resistance stats increasing despite not actually getting to level up, which was also broken in its own way, given that stats can only increase as you level up.

My Dexterity Stat also increased, but just when I level'd up. It means I could barely control my strength... I had to work more on being gentle, and my accuracy far more than applying more force to each swing on my own, without relying on the DEX stat... Which held me back a lot.

At the time, I started to think that if I endured enough deaths, I might eventually be able to defeat at least one of them. If not by using skills, then with just overpowering strength.

But, their skills, experience, and overall stats and levels far surpassed mine. As members of the royal capital's knights, they ranked among the top 300 strongest on the continent, alongside elite adventurers. My odds of success were minimal, especially considering that the rate at which my stats improved with each death had begun to dwindle, eventually ceasing altogether.

I suppose this was because the level of brutality and torture I endured wasn't severe enough to inflict the kind of trauma needed for my body to evolve from it. In other words, my body had adapted to the torment, as well as my mind.

From then on, the only way I could get stronger was to level up. I didn't get much of an opportunity to do it with these pricks, but I did have a certain edge even at my situation. I had a level 14's stats at level 6 thanks to my deaths, and stats would grow at a fixed percentage rate according to your level when you level up, regardless of how great they are. At least at the beginner levels.

It meant I could catch up to Magus... In like 20 years, if he didn't move a muscle and didn't improve separately.

Either way, when I shared what was happening to me with him, he was furious. He thought I was just training hard, not straight-up being tortured.

He went straight to the queen, and sure enough, everyone involved got what was coming to them.

The training lasted for three years.

Then we continued our quest to defeat the demon lord. As you might guess, over the years, we only picked up female companions. His passives didn't just attract them; they swayed them to our side.

Trustworthy because they were under his spell, we collected them like Pokémon. Whenever we heard about a strong woman, we'd head out and recruit her. Even the toughest warrior who'd long locked away her heart couldn't resist him and would join us.

Before long, our group expanded to seven members:

Millina was the first to join us. Originally a guide working at a remote guild in the middle of the woods, we encountered her when we found ourselves lost in that very forest. From then on, she became an integral part of our group. Her knowledge of edible plants and wildlife made her invaluable, especially when it came to navigating unfamiliar territories. She unfortunately died to a Demonic general 4 and a half years into the journey. It hit me and the rest of us hard, but not nearly as hard as Magus. I think he loved her more than anyone in the party.

Marcilla, the warrior I mentioned earlier, was a tanned, short-haired tomboy with a fierce presence. She declared that dating men was dull and uninteresting. In battle, she was unstoppable—a true force to be reckoned with. She often trained Magus and me, but as time passed, it became clear her favor lay more with Magus for his superior talent... And his passives, I assume. Despite my hopes she would somehow warm up to me, she ended up closer to him, along with Millina.

Lalyn, the aloof ice dragon tamer, viewed other humans with disdain, despite being one herself. She only joined our party to help subdue a rogue dragon, and made it clear she was not interested in any prolonged association with us. However, Magus won her over shockingly fast—I even caught her feeding him with a spoon.

Mika and Rika, the master assassin sisters, excelled in stealth and detecting traps. Their expertise was unparalleled, and, unsurprisingly, they both fell for Magus as well. They took pity on me after numerous mishaps and deaths from unseen traps, deciding to teach me better ways to navigate and remain undetected.

Then there were me and Magus, rounding out the group. Together, we navigated countless challenges, though it often seemed like I was just along for the ride in Magus's more charismatic orbit... Who am I kidding, of course it was just that.

By the time we reached the Demon Lord's castle, he was a level 487 Mage/Beastamer/Paladin/Runemaster/Archer/Summoner. Mostly just an attack mage, though.

I was still a level 22 Warrior because I didn't get to kill a lot of monsters, and couldn't share Magus' leveling buff thanks to my Dark Soul Passive. But thanks to my creative ways of dying horribly, my stats were those of a level 100 ~ 150 at that point. The rest of the party ranged around 200 to 300.

The only thing we lacked was a healer-based magician. But it wasn't a huge problem since Magus had some healing skills.

I thought we should beef up our numbers with even more girls since the enemies were getting tougher, but for some reason, he was totally against it.

"Haha... We should get stronger on our own... What's the point of facing the demon lord with an army of girls... Haha... It just doesn't make sense," he muttered.

It didn't really add up to me, but I agreed when I saw how shaken he was by the suggestion. It's not like I suggested a guy to join us, just the usual girl hunt. Thought he'd be thrilled...