The Hunted Regressor: My Heretic Saint System-Chapter 31: Life Or Death

The morning sun pierced through the canopy, hitting Ignotus directly in the eyelid.

"Urgh..."

He groaned, squinting against the assault and the screaming birds.

’Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.’

Eris’s voice chimed in his head, sounding entirely too cheerful.

’Morning...’

Ignotus grumbled back.

’Remind me to burn this jungle down later. The birds are too loud.’

He tried to sit up, but the leaf cocoon he had wrapped himself in held firm, forcing him to wiggle like a trapped caterpillar. The dried leaves crinkled loudly until, a full minute later, he finally managed to tear an arm free.

With a heave, he flopped out of the hammock and landed on his feet—well, mostly on his feet, stumbling slightly before correcting his posture.

"Hm."

Ignotus stretched his back, hearing a satisfying series of pops.

"...oh."

He looked down.

The three assassins were still there.

They were on their knees, dark circles under their eyes, looking like they had stared into the abyss and the abyss had told them a really boring story. Behind them, the dirt was freshly turned—the graves of their comrades.

"Wow."

Ignotus was genuinely impressed; they had actually listened.

"I expected you guys to try to stab me in my sleep, or at least run. You have zero initiative... that’s disappointing."

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked at the air in front of him.

Ding!

A notification was waiting.

—

╔════════╗

║OVERFLOW!║

╚════════╝

╔═════════════════╗

║☆ ORDINATION UP X 6 ☆║

╚═════════════════╝

[You’ve Slayed A Seeker Runebearer X 4!]

[SF = 157!]

[Ordination: 6 → 12]

[+ 18 STAT POINTS!]

—

’Oh... not bad. Not bad at all~.’

Ignotus checked his stats:

—

╔══════════════╗

║Heretic Saint System║

╚══════════════╝

{Ordination: 12}

[• SF: 4 / 40 •]

{Health}

[• H: 102/102 → 252/252 •]

{Divinity}

[• D: 69/134 → 266/266 •]

[Strength] 6 → 12 (F+ → E) (World Avg: E)

[Intelligence] 16 → 19 (E → E+) (World Avg: F)

[Willpower] 19 (E+) (World Avg: F)

[Speed] 9 → 14 (F+ → E) (World Avg: E)

[Endurance] 15 → 19 (E → E+) (World Avg: E)

[Appearance] 70 (B+) (World Avg: C)

[Personality] -1 (G) (World Avg: D)

[Luck] 60 (B) (World Avg: C)

—

Ignotus stared at the numbers, doing the math in his head.

That was barely thirty-nine fragments per kill.

’Cheapskates... are human lives that close to monkeys?’

It seemed inflation really hit the Soul market hard.

He dismissed the screen with a mental swipe.

It was better than nothing, but he wasn’t exactly swimming in power yet; that took time, a very long and arduous amount of time.

Still, that didn’t mean that he didn’t enjoy this upgrade, as his frame had thickened a little more, with muscles emerging where there had been nothing but bone and skin.

He could literally feel his stats etching themselves into his bones.

It was Divine!

’Yeah, it’s not too bad.’

This showed him just how tough it’d be to increase his Ordination later on, as the Soul Fragment requirement seemed to be rapidly increasing and would reach a much higher number with a higher ordination, perhaps the tens of thousands.

Of course, the more Runes a monster had, the more Soul Fragments they would give, but such monsters were too strong to grind, requiring cohorts of Runebearers to fight them. And more importantly, there weren’t many of such monsters, making even finding them a challenge.

Ignotus needed to seriously think this through and find an alternative; grinding out like he did yesterday wasn’t fast enough. He needed a boost to surprise whoever would be sent after him; otherwise, he was dead meat.

’It’s a lot, but...’

He stared up at the canopy.

’That’s a problem for future me~.’

Wasting time thinking about it here wasn’t going to help.

Ignotus walked over to the dying campfire, making the assassins tense up, their shoulders hiking toward their ears.

"Water."

Immediately at his command, the young assassin—the crying one from last night—scrambled up, grabbed a waterskin, rushed over, and offered it with two trembling hands.

Ignotus took it, rinsed his mouth, and spat into a bush before taking a long swig.

"Thanks."

He handed the skin back.

The assassin looked like he had just been sainted.

Wiping his mouth, he looked at the trio, and they looked back, their eyes pleading.

They were waiting for the verdict.

Life or death.

"So..."

Ignotus fixed up his now messy hair.

"I said I’d decide your Fate in the morning."

"P-Please, my Lord!"

The older assassin begged, his voice obviously raspy.

"We did as you asked! We buried them! We watched the fire! We didn’t sleep!"

"I see that. You look seriously terrible."

Ignotus looked around the ground, bent down, and picked up a random stick.

It was slightly curved, with the bark peeled off on one side.

"Alright. I’m feeling lazy, so let your luck decide."

The assassins stopped breathing.

Felix, who had woken up and was watching from the side, held his breath too.

"I’m going to throw this stick."

Ignotus explained, weighing the twig in his hand.

"If the curved end points toward the tree over there... you die. I will kill you all, right now and very painfully."

The assassins looked at the tree.

It looked like the gallows to them. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

"If it points toward the river..."

Ignotus gestured to the sounds of flowing water behind them.

"You live... you walk away, and I forget your faces. Which would honestly be pretty easy. You lot look pretty forgettable."

Life or death, all dependent on a stick.