Villains Aren't Stepping Stones! - Chapter 116: The Elder and The Willow Tree

A young farmer's son, Oscar, is content with living a peaceful life, but by fate's whim, he is found to have the potential to become something greater, an Exalt. A special class of humans who perform miraculous feats and lord over others. Despite his shortcoming and slow progress compared to the geniuses around him, Oscar holds determination as his shield and persistence as his blade. Who says that a person needs to be a genius?Who says that a person has to be a prodigy?With each heavy step, Oscar walks the path of an Exalt.

The most powerful sword was broken in an ancient war and now its spirit is reborn in a common sword and bought by a girl named Li Qingming.The sword spirit senses that Li, though weak now, boasts some traces familiar to it, which remind it of its former owner and his friends.

This is the story of Lara, a young woman from modern times, raised with one singular purpose: to exact revenge on the family of the general who destroyed her own.But fate had other plans. On her way to carry out her mission of vengeance, a twist in the plan led to disaster. Lara was struck by a military truck escorting the very general she intended to assassinate.When she awoke, she found herself in an entirely different world—one where her identity and purpose were starkly different from the life she had known and how she had been molded to be.Abducted by human traffickers, she outsmarted them and escaped. Then, she encountered a mysterious martial arts master whose ancient skills far surpassed her own. For two years, she trained with him in the remote mountains. One fateful day, while hunting deep in Mount Ourea, Lara stumbled upon the Prince of Northem, disguised as a commoner. He was gravely injured while pursuing a notorious group of bandits. Lara saved him then vanished without a trace.Haunted by his savior, the Prince of Northem searched for her but to no avail. Duty called, and he rejoined the Northem army, embroiled in a fierce battle against the bandits and soldiers of Estalis in the Alta-Sierra mountain range.Amid the chaos, Lara was mistakenly swept onto the battlefield, disguised as a soldier. The Prince of Northem, intrigued by the disguised warrior, recruited him as his guard.During the battle, fate played another cruel hand. Lara came face to face with General Odin and his two sons—only to discover that General Odin was the spitting image of the general she had been trained to assassinate. Could the man from her world be a descendant of this brave general?Torn between her mission and her newfound reality, Lara faced an impossible question: How could she kill her biological father?Her internal conflict deepened when she uncovered an elaborate plot to frame General Odin and his sons as traitors. The true culprits? His own subordinates and trusted allies.In an ironic twist of fate, Lara found herself becoming the 'protector' of the family that, in modern times, she was supposed to ruin.After the war, Lara returned as a hero, ready to reveal her identity to General Odin, but she learned of another betrayal. Her cousin, Mira—the orchestrator of her abduction—had taken over her identity. Mira lived in her home under the guise of comforting Lara's grief-stricken mother because of the death of her only daughter. Not only that, she also did a lot of scheming and eventually claimed Lara's betrothal to Prince Alaric.With her identity stolen and her mission turned upside down, Lara faced a new challenge: reclaiming her life and honor and protecting her new family.

What would you do if your entire world were turned on its head? A Primordial System buzzing in everyone’s heads, displaying strange screens and other displays in their visions. Being thrown into a tutorial before entering your first System Event broadcast across the universe. Returning back to your home after the System Event to realize that it’s been filled with Gates leading to monster-filled domains, a good number of which have already broken and released their monsters into the world. And learning that the abilities every human being has – abilities that have led to the current structure of society – are nothing but the root of their Skill Trees. The very first skill in their Skill Tree out of many. Well, Ashley doesn’t know. She doesn’t remember anything other than some basic common knowledge from before waking up at the start of the tutorial with amnesia. So why should this change anything for her? Other than her finding out about the blood bestowed upon her by a certain primordial and her own Skill Tree. One with just a single skill. A skill to unlock the skill trees of those she kills. To assimilate. What to expect: Skill Trees, LitRPG Apocalypse, Skill Tree Assimilator(the ability to take the skill trees of those the MC kills that she can unlock through Skill Points without getting the skills right away), Livestreamed Dungeons, Livestreamed Public Battles and Events, Chaos Magic, Varied Magic due to Skill Tree Assimilator, and the MC does not start off strong in the start and only grows strong as she assimilates more skills from those she kills, the MC starts out without any memories and few emotions and slowly gains them throughout the series. What not to expect: I do not write romance(for the main protagonist), there will be no harem, there will be no reverse harem, and do not expect a really strong MC at the start of the story as she has to grow into that role.