The Ruined Death Knight

Staring at Kayn´s legs in wonder, he couldn´t help but get closer to take a better look.

"So you are telling me that magic has done this to your legs?"

"Yes..." Kayn nodded as he was about to hide his legs again, but was quickly stopped by Danzel.

"Wait, will you mind if touch it?" he asked curiously.

"Huh?" Kayn froze hearing this.

He minded big time if a stranger wanted to touch these changed legs, but upon looking at the open hand of him he remembered how he tightly grabbed his face and almost suffocated him.

"S-Sure..." Kayn said in a shudder.

Having his consent, Danzel quickly moved to his knees and touched his legs with his fingers cautiously.

Except for Kayn who felt nervous with a hint of panic showing in his eyes, the other two beside them looked with a frown on Danzel.

"Is it enough-"

"Does it even hurt?" Danzel interrupted Kayn as he was surprised at how the texture of his leg felt like some kind of metal than of flesh.

Staying silent for a moment, he shook this head.

"No"

"What about when I touch those blue lines?"

"No..."

"How about..."

...

So went around ten whole minutes of Danzel questioning him and he replies.

The whole situation was rather awkward for the trio, especially to Marcus and Anna who just looked silently.

Raising up from this knee, Danzel nodded to himself.

"To think that magic is capable of such feat...Truly amazing." He said honestly, not for them but more for himself.

He once again found how special magic was.

From freezing one\'s body in an instant to raising the dead to serve. 

He thought he knew vaguely what magic was capable of by reading just one book and experimenting with his mana.

But seeing that, he couldn\'t even wrap this head around it how they managed to do it.

\'I guess I am just a big fish in a small pot in the area of magic...\' He thought to himself.

Kayn who finally hidden his legs again looked at Danzel in surprise.

"Don\'t you find those...disgusting?"

"You mean those? What\'s so disgusting about them?" 

"They are legs of a monster! What\'s there to like about them?" Kayn said slightly agitated.

Once he and the other children had escaped from the caravan transporting them to another \'torture chamber\'. He learned how others view him as just an abomination that needed to be killed.

There were many days he considered cutting both of his legs off, but he knew that the other ones still needed him.

He despised his legs, which was all the more reason why he was confused by Danzel\'s question.

"The way I see it kid is that this is more of a gift than a curse." Danzel said while cursing internally the moment he was reading Kayns status.

Kayns attributes went on an average of 70 with int being the lowest.

That alone made him someone of the 2nd-tier. But although he was severely lacking based on skills, he made up for it in talents that even he was jealous of.

And reading the description of them they seemed like they came from their monster parts.

[Dark Xeneros genes] 

[Mutation stimulants]

[Mana veins (Incomplete)]

This first talent seemed to be of the monster that they combine with him which increased all these stats passively for a total of 15%.

The second one was similar to his [Sin of Wrath] on increasing the owner stats. But compared to my that increased the stats throughout the whole body. The talent increases by 30% of his legs and eyes but came with side effects after this duration.

The last one was that simple that he could travel mana much easier with less strain.

Just two of his talents were making him capable to reach the same speed that this Alpha wolf, although only in stats.

So if you are going to ask him those were indeed gifts.

Though he didn\'t seem to have the same thoughts as I.

"Gifts!? Are you telling me that those are gifts!? They are nothing but a curse that is making me a monster!" Kayn shouted at Danzel while showing these black legs.

Shaking his head, Danzel disagreed.

"It seems you are quite fixated I\'m being a monster. Though I don\'t really care if you want to be a monster or a frog, let me tell you this."

"Though my whole life, I see humans call me a monster or just a murderer once I killed some of them. And I believe that you guys think the same."

"But do you what they recently started to call me?"

"Either a hero or a savior that killed some low lives for the sake of good. When in fact I have just done so cause they were simply annoying."

Starting at the confused trio, I chuckled.

"Don\'t you find it funny how they call me whatever they want based on convenience? None of them thought of me as a murderer when they talked about those hammer heads."

"Hear me, well kid, you aren\'t a monster because they call you one."

"You are a monster because you call yourself one." Danzel said with a deep tone unconsciously, sounding like someone who saw everything there was in life to see.

Wise.

The trio stayed silent, thinking what his word\'s true meaning where.

Kayn in response had a surprised look on his face as he understood something but still stayed silent.

With Marcus having a confused look on his face, it was Anna who broke the awkward silence.

"Mr. knight, do you mean that if we were to do good deeds and kill all the bad people antagonizing the common people, then they will accept us as who were are and not as monsters based on our looks?" Anna said with a voice full of hope.

In response, Danzel stared at her in confusion.

"What? No, what I meant to say is don´t give a damn crap about what people say about you. How the hell did you interpret that to what I said?"

"Oh..." She lower her head looking at the ground dejected.

"Anyways, you guys still haven´t answered my first question. Or are you guys planning to stay here through all of your lifespans?"

"Well...since our monster parts show up when we reach 14 years old. W-We plan to stay here until everyone has their chance. After that, we don-t know... We thought of going towards Berum where we heard there aren´t any of those cursed mages." Kayn said somewhat uncertain as he should since he was only 15 years old.

"What? You guy´s want to go to Berum? That´s no different as asking to die." Danzel looked at them as he would one attempting suicide.

"Huh? Why? Isn´t Berum the place where there are no mages?" Marcus said with a frown.

"You are wrong of their to be no mages. But that isn´t why I am telling you that you guys will die. The reason why they say that they aren´t mages is that most magic is being controlled by the kingdom. Which created a society that hates magic."

"If you go there, it´s basically asking to die."

Ignoring their depressed look, he walked right past them.

"Alright, now get out. I still have the stuff to do.

Nodding the trio, they left.

Closing the trap door from the outside, he walked towards the door of the church.

"I will be leaving for today, though my absence doesn´t try to go through the trap door, or else I will kill the ones who do. And trust me, I will know."

Making a path for me to walk, I opened the door and was about to leave, but right about of closing the door, I turned around upon hearing some footsteps.

"What do you want?" He asked Kayn who has an anxious face.

"Sir Knigh-"

"Call me Danzel. I am no knight for you to call me that."

"Then...Sir Danzel? I wanted to ask you something before you leave."

Nodding for him to continue, Kayn said with a rather weak voice

"Would you consider yourself a monster?"

"..."

Staring at him surprised, I broke up into laughter.

"Hahaha! Do think that you will ask me something like that."

Going outside, I replied before closing the door.

"I would consider myself as a monster. But compared to you that fears to be one. I embrace it."

*Baahm!

Closing the door, Danzel made his way towards the inner part of the city while chuckling to himself.

`Technically Undead are considered monster\'s so I didn´t lie to him, but let\'s not say that part. hehe.´

Unknowing how this response would affect Kayn´s mindset in the future, he bought a list similar to one of the groceries.

"Let´s first buy some new material to practice on. I have grown sick of working with paper.." Putting the list away, he made his way towards the blacksmiths.