The Exterminators looked terrified. Not just their bodies, but their vision too.

  The floor had more red than ground. Countless bodies, the size of human heads, were piled together, almost reaching the size of the giant spider.

  But somehow, they all felt relief.

  "THANK GOD!!!"

  Everyone shouted that, or words similar to it.

  Swords, shields, staffs, bows, everything and more were thrown into the air. Shouts were heard, but they were no longer of fear; they were of pure joy.

  "T-That traitor..." said one, crying. "I'll never forgive him!"

  "It's alright, we're safe." Another man came to comfort him. "He was defeated. He did it."

  And finally, everyone took a look at the person responsible: a boy in a beanie, with only one hand that was stuck in his pocket. Their reaction was instant: they ran to thank their hero.

  "HE'S THE HERO!!"

  So they did. And in a matter of seconds, the boy had all the survivors licking his feet.

  "I OWE YOU MY LIFE!!"

  "MY SAVIOR!!"

  "THANK YOU!!!"

  Those kinds of things were heard.

  In the midst of that crowd, celebrating and even wanting to give some kind of reward to the boy, one man stood out.

  "Hey, Jonas... Thank you very much. Seriously," the male DPS said. "But why didn't you tell us you had this power before?!" He started to cry. "I-I was so scared, damn it!"

  "We lost so many people..." the female DPS snorted. "But at least you managed to save the majority... Thank you very much." She turned to the ground and cleared her throat. "Guys! I believe everyone here agrees to give him all the Mana Stones, right?!"

  The answer was a unanimous "Yes!"

  The male DPS put his hand on the boy's shoulder and said with a grin soaked in tears, "Really, I don't know how to thank you enough... You know, I'm rich as hell, I can give you anything you want. You just have to say it!"

  "How many survived?" Those were the words that came out of the boy's mouth. Quietly.

  "E-Eh, of course that's what you care haha... hm..." The DPS turned back and started to count. "1, 2, 3... 27. Only 27 survived. T-That bastard... he murdered 22 people!"

  "27, uh?... So that means most of it is left over for me. Good."

  "Sure. That's good. But—wait, what do you mean—"

  The DPS's chest was sliced in half.

  What the participants saw from the outside was a blade tearing through his body. A blade that was not from a sword.

  His body fell to the ground. Dead, without any trace of life. Giving way to a man with a malevolent and arrogant smirk.

  "H-Hey, Jonas..." one of the participants murmured. "What is going on?"

  "Yeah, a bunch of level zeros, that's kinda humiliating for me. Buuuuuuuuuuuut..." he stretched out. "I need to warm up, don't I? You know, new body, hehe."

  And with those words, a woman nearby had her eyes gouged out of her face.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  "J-Jonas... You—what are you doing—"

  A man's brain was sliced in half.

  "You know, try at least." HeraCrox opened his arms, an invite. "That's how you warm up."

  The female DPS took two steps back, a distance she considered safe. She grabbed her bow and pointed it at HeraCrox.

  "YAHHHHH!!!"

  But she didn't shoot.

  The bow was on the ground, along with her entire right hand.

  "Oh? What’s wrong? I thought you were gonna try to shoot me." There was a voice in her ear. "But you just... didn't, I don't get it, Miss."

  She tried to punch him with her other arm, but when she noticed, her vision had gone black.

  "Bye bye."

  To everyone present, the truth was as clear as water: only the murderer had changed.

  HeraCrox turned to the rest of the participants; there were still almost twenty people. He raised his single hand. "And now..." he snapped his fingers, "Run."

  "WOAHHH!!!" And everything went back to chaos. Screams of pain and agony filled the air; everyone feared for their lives, running in circles looking for the stairs that led to the lower floor, since the nearest exit was blocked.

  But actually, there was another difference from the previous serial killer: this one had a wicked grin.

  "Hey hey hey hey... Level 0s are so cool. They always do what I say." HeraCrox didn't even take a step for a while. He remained silent, completely still, just admiring and contemplating the despair. "I guess I'm gonna beat a world record."

  Slash. It looked like the sharpest sword in the world, but it was simply an iron arm.

  "WAIT A SECOND PAL!!"

  After decapitating a man, HeraCrox came across a red, pulsing organ sticking out of his body.

  "Uh, interesting."

  He grabbed it with his bare hand. He placed a hand on his chin and began to analyze it like a scientist.

  "This is..." He pointed to the nearest peasant. "Hey, you."

  That froze him, as if it had a power. A word was enough to take away control of his movements.

  "Y-Yes?" he answered, trying hard not to piss himself.

  HeraCrox stretched out his arm, tearing out the veins that connected to the already-dead body. "What organ is this?"

  The guy thought for a second and decided to play a smart move. "I-If I tell you, w-will you spare me?"

  "No."

  "...uh?"

  "Come on, just say it."

  "I-It's..." The man's breathing was heavy, but he held a glimmer of hope. "A heart."

  "Heart? Really?"

  HeraCrox gave a long lick to the most important organ in the human body. "Beetles have them too. But it's quite different. Wow, humans really can't stop evolving."

  "S-So? Are you going to let me go?" asked a head whose body was not connected to itself.

  "Wow, look at that!" HeraCrox saw, seated on a broomstick, a small blonde girl floating near the ceiling. "Magic really never stops evolving, does it? It just gets stupider every time."

  Why did he call it Magic? Well, maybe because he didn't need it to do the exact same things.

  HeraCrox grabbed the girl's head as his legs raced along the circular wall. "YOU ARE THE ONES WHO SHOULD BE CALLED INSECTS!!!" The girl's head was dragged through the bricks, the front of her face gripped by the hands of a demon. After a good few seconds, HeraCrox stopped and took a good view of her face. There was no nose, no teeth, probably no life. A completely disfigured face.

  "Hey, let's bet something." He simply dropped the body. If she didn't die from her face being crushed against the brick, she died from a fall of 100 meters.

  "WHOEVER REACHES THE GROUND FIRST WINS!!"

  HeraCrox also fell. But he landed on his feet, and was completely fine. Seconds later, the girl hit the ground.

  "I won, hehe."

  At his right, HeraCrox saw something that made him shrug: two boys drinking teleportation potions.

  "Are you both dumb? Did you actually read the rules?"

  They stood there, not daring to open their mouths, praying that the potion would take effect before he arrived.

  "Anyway, it won’t matter if you return with your body missing." Two more for the genocide.

  HeraCrox saw people running in both directions of the circle, desperately fighting for their lives. What had been supposed to be the happiest day of their lives had turned into the worst. HeraCrox cut off each one's head, one by one, to make sure someone clearly saw a dead being before their turn. Limbs, organs, bones, a true meat festival, but also sweat, potions, armors; everything floated in the air, and even those kinds of things HeraCrox didn't forget to cut. Not only did he use his lonely arm, sometimes transforming his head into a blade, even though it was not necessary at all.

  And after a few seconds, he was done. "I shouldn't feel proud for this." It had been such a simple task that he didn't even think it was worth a sigh.

  "H-Hey! J-Jonas!!" someone called.

  HeraCrox heard something calling him from the other side of the room. Actually, right where he had started, but he had to chase to the last human.

  "Uh, did I forget someone?"

  When he turned, he saw a man holding a minecart. He was covered in sweat, biting his tongue. But the minecart was full of precious jewels.

  "W-We can negotiate! I-I give all this! Even the boss one! J-Just let me go!... I-I won't tell anyone, I swear!"

  It didn't take a genius to figure out that was completely dumb. Simply because neither the minecart nor the Mana Stones were under his pocket. But, in life-or-death situations, humans did anything to pursue the first option. So, one could not judge the choice of this poor severed head.

  "Why the heck would I want the essence of some animals?"

  The beetle's hand gripped one of those mana stones.

  He looked, looked, and looked, but his confused and pissed expression didn't change in the slightest.

  "Honestly, it's so stupid."

  He then dropped the stone onto the mound.

  "Do you know what to do with such stupidity? It's quite simple."

  His hand gently rested again on one of the stones.

  "Mana Explosion."

  The entire cart exploded into beautiful blue sparks. It became dust, an extremely valuable one. In the end, there were no more carts or stones.

  "Hehe, simple as that."

  A young man stood in the center of a dark dungeon. It wasn't empty; it was a graveyard. Well, not entirely empty; there were lots, lots of corpses around him. From ordinary humans, with their weapons resting near their hands, to a being not found in nature, a being that could only be called "from another world." A giant spider.

  But something caught his attention.

  "Get out. My mana is almost depleted."

  A few meters from the man, there was another one, walking in his direction, looking straight down with his fists clenched. He wore torn clothes: just a white shirt, which was actually backwards, contrasting with the beanie of the man surrounded by blood. Yet he simply walked forward, oblivious to everything else.

  "Hey, you..." The man surrounded by death started to laugh. "Hahaha!! A Lvl. 1! Stronger than everyone else here! Someone with some kind of experience."

  The Status Screen didn't lie. Some small, blue letters floating above the backwards-shirt man, visible exclusively through the lens of the laughing one, said 'Lvl.: 1. Beginner.'

  "You know, I don't really wanna reach Mana Depletion. But if you insist..." He dashed forward with blinding speed. "YOU'LL BE MY LAST ONE—"

  A fist slammed into his face. It was so strong that it made a crater in the ground.

  "W-Wait, you're one of them!?"