Life Of A Nobody - as a Villain

One day later,

"The monsters here are quite tougher." Valtor said, shaking the dual short swords in his hands, rinsing the blood and splattering it onto the piles of corpses laying at his feet.

Rio, who was beside him, did the same before putting his sword in a sheath and breathing heavily.

The pair of boys had been roaming the forest for several hours today too, looking for a way out. Yet the forest seemed to be infinite, and no matter how many times they rushed out, they never saw the end of it.

The deeper they went, the tougher the monsters they faced against, and as the sun got brighter, the number of them increased several times too.

The night here was a little peaceful, as the monsters seemed to be weaker and less sensitive in darkness, but as the dawn breaked the next day, the creatures of the forest had started to fight again, full of life and energy.

They both didn't see any other students, or find any clue about anyone's whereabouts yesterday, so after the whole hours of hunting, when they got tired, they just found a cave and usurped it. Roasting and eating the lion king living inside.

After that they just had a few talks where Rio asked him about his training and things about the guilds while he was gone, and Valtor asked him about some skills and techniques.

Since darkness and shadow elements were similar, they both had a lot of common methods too.

Though Valtor mainly used shadows to hide his trace and amplify his speed, acting like an assassin. Rio liked to use darkness as more of an attack mode or mage style. To trap, bind or catch someone off guard, and even kill or torture them.

It was their own choice, and their own paths, but still the insights they both had for their skills were good to hear. Especially Rio, whose every word and thought seemed to be inspiring something in Valtor's mind.

Like learning flame magic, not just to counter your opposing element, but also to use it to create your own different shadows and have a backup.

Or using shadows not just as medium to travel but to fight instead too. (Solo leveling style)

Rio also told him and taught him about ways to property use Shani's blessing, gaze of hatred, and how he could control and upgrade it later on.

After all, that blessing was something that caused a lot of trouble for the protagonist, so Rio had to teach it well to the protagonist's rival.

Anyway the duo who originally had a competitive spirit in their childhood, were now slowly becoming good friends.

Rio also asked him about Amaya, and what's going on with the talks of their engagement, causing Valtor to stammer on his words and cough embarrassingly.

The poor guy can be stoic and stern all his life, not phasing or frowning for a second in the face of danger and monsters, yet mention Amaya, and suddenly he's all tongue tied.

"Do you think it's a dead world, with nothing but monsters and plant life inside?" Valtor asked, staring at the ground below from the mountain top and noticing nothing but greenery.

"The world system didn't say so, maybe we are just sent to some lonely or forbidden place, I'm sure life exists somewhere." Rio said after some thought and decided to use flight magic to take a look around.

He had shut off his system since he wanted to train himself normally, but now it was enough roaming around. He didn't want to waste his time anymore, since he already got all the answers he needed about this planet.

First, Monsters here had excellent nature element's compatibility. No matter who he met, they possessed skills utilizing nature for their survival.

Second, he could absorb the crystals after killing them, and recover a bit of his mana. But that was all.

Third, all the monsters possessed spirituality, they all had wisdom to think. They could plan and predict the danger, and they were practical in their actions.

If losing your leg means getting the opponent's head , they took the chance. If losing a hand and 'crying' means survival, they did that too.

Fourth, every monster had a high defense against spiritual attacks, like mind control or memory search were not at all effective against them.

Finally, fifth and the most important thing is that the monsters grew stronger according to the sunlight they received. Something like a photosynthesis effect maybe.

"Stay here, I'll take a look." Rio said, as wings of white formed on his back, and a flap of them brought forth an angelic light to his feet that propelled him upwards, streaming through the air and above the clouds next second.

Valtor watched him fly away and clicked his tongue. 'Show off.'

While Rio went around to look for a way outside this strange forest, Valtor just closed his eyes and started absorbing the crystals from creatures he hunted to recover his mana. When he opened the eyes again, his pupils had an extra tinge of green inside them, before turning normal next second.

Valtor himself didn't notice yet but all the killings he's been doing in this forest, and crystals he's eaten or absorbed, had started eroding his mind, slowly on a scale where it never aroused any suspicion.

"Hey, Valtor, I think I saw a town or a camp somewhere, let's go." Rio's voice broke his meditation, as he landed beside Valtor and started walking towards the North.

While Valtor behind him had a green vein popping on his forehead, before it completely merged into his skin and disappeared completely. "Coming," He said and started following Rio.

They both soon started running, their mana strongly getting sucked away, as they both started using shadow walking and teleportation to move faster and faster.

Once they were gone to a safe distance, the silent dead tree trunks parted from the middle and faces made out of wood peeked outside. Until the whole tree turned into a man-like creature with its branches turning into his long green hairs.

The creature had a humane appearance by face, same two eyes, one nose, one mouth, though they did lack ears.

The several tree-man looked at each other and nodded their heads. Talking to each other in sheldom mood.

"The outsiders have appeared here too."

"They're everywhere these days."

"Their appearance will effect the great war."

"The mother also said these people were dangerous."

"Should we intercept them?"

"But they hold that dreaded dark magic. Is there a chance that the prophecy of the cursed one...." ( fear causing his voice to tremble, making next words hard to speak)

"We don't need to fear, mother, she has plans for these people. We don't need to handle this pair, she'll kill them herself."

"Besides we already got more than half of them, it won't be long till they're all at our mercy."

"Once they're dead, we'll finally be free from the terror of his prophecy."

###

Author note - A poetic snippet for the widespread prophecy of phronesia, talking about the arrival of eternal doom.

"When nights are long and stars are few,

The cursed one will come for you.

His magic born in death's domain,

Will leave the world in endless pain."

Is Rio really the cursed one? Or is it someone else? Who said this prophecy, how and why? Throw me ur theories...