The Idle System Box Set

by Pegaz

  Once they got to the family’s home, John had a hard time getting the truth out of them. Annoyed, he finally threatened to walk away, which was when they spilt everything.

  Six months before, the family’s sixteen-year-old leader-in-line found the creature’s nest while exploring the area a bit. Within the nest was an unhatched egg, which he stole instead of leaving it alone. The day after, he cooked the egg for his breakfast. The family believed that this was the reason for the attacks, as it was on this day that the terror began.

  The stupidity of the leader-in-line stumped both John and Sarah. John was tempted to use the young man as bait to lure the gryphon out, but he knew the family would never allow that. They were meant to be saving the family, not putting them in danger. Nonetheless, John checked him with his Immortal Eye.

  Anton Schmidt

  Rank: 2

  Level: 8

  Sin: 4

  Heaving a sigh, John left the home and investigated the area with the most sightings of the gryphon. Sarah followed, asking what the sighing was all about.

  “If he had over five hundred sins, I could have left him to the gryphon,” John grumbled. “But he had so little sin that I could not convince myself to do it.”

  And so, John and Sarah walked around leadless for hours. Even with their Scan ability, there were no traces of their target. As the sun slipped below the horizon, John built a camp in the fields while Sarah prepared food. They would spend the night here. They could only hope that the smell of the food would lure the gryphon over. With all their abilities, they could search for weeks without a break if they wanted.

  As the hours passed and there was still no sign, the couple sat down on a fallen tree and discussed what to do next. The nest that the boy stumbled upon was deserted now, and there were no clues as to the gryphon’s new resting place. Blindly searching and hoping for the gryphon to show up was the worst thing they could do, but without knowing where the new nest was, they might have no other choice.

  While they were deep in conversation, a man ran towards them from the direction of the home. The couple spotted him with the Scan ability and recognised him as a member of the family.

  Once the man arrived, breathless, he explained that the gryphon was spotted near the family estate. He was lucky to have found John and Sarah in the field.

  Without another moment to waste, John and Sarah raced back to the family estate, sure not to use Toxin Power at all. It took them less than fifteen minutes to arrive within five miles of the family estate. Once within range, they could make out the silhouette of the gryphon through the Scan.

  It had a bird’s head, beak, claws, and wings with a lion’s body and tail. The creature’s massive twenty-foot long body was covered in silky black feathers. When it stood on all fours, it would stand about nine feet tall.

  John and Sarah looked at each other as they walked closer. John pointed to her and then pointed down. He pointed to himself and pointed up. Nodding at the code, they both teleported. When John reappeared, he was above the gryphon with his nano long sword, ready to slash downwards at its neck. Sarah was under the gryphon, thrusting her nano short sword towards the creature’s heart.

  The gryphon noticed Sarah and flapped its wings, sending itself backwards. However, John’s sword was behind it and the creature flung its neck directly into it, completely decapitating itself. The fight only lasted for half a second.

  The corpse tumbled onto the ground with a thump. Reaching down at the rolling head, John stored the corpse of the gryphon in his Storage Space. Sarah burst into laughter, amazed at how easy the quest was. The family thanked them and showered them with simple gifts, but John and Sarah refused them. Their payment from the Sword Sect would be far more than enough.

  The couple spent two more days around the town for a little holiday. It was a pleasant and calming time that they both enjoyed for as long as they could. On the third day, they were to head back home.

  As they were leaving the city, however, two people blocked their path. John didn’t know who they were but Sarah seemed to. A dark look shadowed her face as she clenched her jaw and whispered to John.

  “That’s Elder Han and his son! The one who wanted to use me as a cauldron!”

  Chapter 51

  Elder Han

  “Wait a second… They were in the Sword Sect!” John was struck by the memory, eyes widening. “In the VIP area behind Frank and Alisha! Did they realise who we were because of the tournament?”

  “I don’t know.” Sarah knitted her brows, “I turned off Scan during the tournament finals, but I had it on during the preliminaries. Why didn’t I see them?”

  “Because you were in A group,” John explained. “The VIP area was on the far side from you. Your Scan wasn’t large enough to reach it from where A group fought. At least, that’s the only reason I can think of.”

  John checked the two men out with his Immortal Eye.

  ???

  Rank: 6

  Level: 2

  Sin: 1,982,051

  ???

  Rank: 8

  Level: 7

  Sin: 24,294,561

  He told Sarah their rank and strength so she could prepare for the fight. The two each drew their nano weapons out and got into a fighting stance.

  “The Sword Sect must have spies from the Anti-Assassin group in their ranks,” John murmured. “These two must have been informed of when we left and what quest we took. I don’t know how they knew my identity or what tipped them off... but I’m guessing their plan is to kill me and use you as a cauldron.”

  Sarah grit her teeth. A sense of guilt trickled in the back of her head; she blamed herself for this encounter. If either one of them got hurt from the incoming battle, she would be to blame.

  “I’ll take on the father,” John continued on. “You kill the son as fast as possible, then come help me. I can probably only buy you a little time, though. If things get too dangerous, we’ll teleport away. We need to kill them and hope they haven’t told the Anti-Assassin sect about us yet.”

  There was a pause. John took a shaky breath.

  “Use everything you have. No holding back, and… I love you.”

  Sarah forced a smile beneath her mask.

  “I love you, too.”

  John stretched out his left arm with his eyes set on the older man. He felt a chill down his spine as they made eye contact from afar. Elder Han nodded at John, and they both approached each other.

  Once they were five hundred feet away from Sarah and Elder Han’s son, the two men stopped and stared at each other. John disappeared, but the elder shifted his weight and moved to one side.

  As soon as he stepped out the way, a sword flashed by where he was standing. A little frustrated, John disappeared again, causing the elder to jump back to dodge another sword flash.

  After John’s fifth attempt at a stealth attack, the elder spoke.

  “If I didn’t see this speed of yours in the tournament,” he called out with his sandpaper voice. “You would have gotten in my blind spot and killed me. Your mistake was unknowingly revealing it to your enemy in a moment of anger.”

  “Yeah, that’s a bad habit of mine.” John smirked. “I try to kill bastards who try to kill my wife. So maybe you and your partner should rethink this plan of yours.”

  “It has occurred to me that you don’t know who I am.” The Elder laughed a little. “Even Sarah doesn’t know my name, only my title. As a courtesy, I’ll tell you the names of the men who will kill you and take your wife. I am Anthony Han, and that is my son, Chris Han. Remember the names when you go to hell.”

  The tension in the air increased ten fold; killing intent leaked into it like thick ammonia.

  “But don’t worry,” the man continued. “Her master, Jason Hendrix, would kill both me and my son if any serious harm came to Sarah. We will take her back to the sect and have her marry my son. Even though many think she died years ago, there is always a way to find out the truth. We do not want to ris
k angering her master.”

  “Her ex-master you mean,” John spat. “She left the Anti-Assassins and doesn’t want to go back.”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Anthony smirked. “When we take her back, he will be her master once again. If you drop your sword and come here, then I will kill you painlessly. If you fight, then I’ll torture you to death.”

  “Wait.” John laughed. “You want me to come over there so you can kill me? Sure, I’ll be right there.”

  Hearing the sarcastic bite in the man’s voice, Anthony took out a long, two-handed sword from a bag on his waist. The elder disappeared from view, and in retaliation, John used the teleport skill to go upwards. Elder Anthony was fast and a Rank 8 powerhouse, but he still needed a sword to fly. John was counting on that.

  Just as John teleported, Anthony appeared where he had been standing. The elder slashed his two-handed sword down, barely missing him. John watched the elder look around after his attack missed. He had a feeling that he would die if he hesitated for even half a second. John teleported behind the elder to attack again, but Anthony dodged just in time.

  For the next few minutes, John and Anthony had attacked each other at different speeds and angles, but neither of them could put a scratch on the other.

  The longer the fight went on, the more shocked Anthony became. John was fighting him on almost equal grounds as a Rank 3! If John was allowed to grow stronger for even just a few more years, Anthony didn’t even want to think about the consequences. The elder became even more annoyed at his son for getting him into this mess. All this trouble over a woman!

  John created ten guns from his million threads, and as he teleported to swing his sword at Anthony’s blind spot, he fired his guns to keep Anthony from dodging. He coated the bullets in his deadliest poison, which made them glow blue. Even if the bullets only touched Anthony’s skin, as a Rank 8, he would have to use Life Power to stop it from spreading. It was a win-win situation for John.

  Elder Anthony immediately spotted the attacks on both sides. He suspected that something about the bullets might be off, so judging by their trajectory he dodged backwards and to his left. This action caught John off guard, but thankfully, Anthony could not take advantage.

  As the fight went on, Anthony was having a harder time dodging everything. After a matter of minutes, the elder had no time to counter John. That was when John switched it up; he generated five guns behind Anthony in his blind spot while he attacked from the front with his sword and the other five guns.

  Anthony managed to dodge the attacks from his front but only noticed the attacks from the back at the last possible moment. Cold sweat dripped down his back as he tried to dodge those as well, but his footing was not sure enough. John took advantage of this.

  John readjusted his sword angle and used the throttle technique. He put more than triple the Toxin Power he would normally use.

  BOOM!

  The sword broke the sound barrier, but its speed didn’t stop there. It reached Mach-two speeds just inches from Anthony. The elder tried to block the attack, but John’s sword sliced through his blade and reached his arm.

  “AAAHHH!”

  Anthony disappeared as fast as he could, his right arm and most of the blade of his two-handed sword left behind. They fell to the floor next to John.

  John pushed the same amount of Toxin Power on the opposite side of the sword to put the brakes on the speed of the swing. Once the blade was still, he then teleported somewhere between where Anthony had disappeared and where Sarah was. The fear of Anthony and his son teaming up against Sarah rose in his throat.

  Anthony’s speed was a major concern. If the two successfully captured Sarah, they could threaten John using Sarah. John’s mind raced in all directions at the thought, but his fears were interrupted by the sound of a loud boom nearby.

  With his Scan, John could see Sarah’s body fall to the ground, unconscious. Her opponent, Chris, was walking towards her.

  Chapter 52

  Lightning

  While John and Anthony were fighting, Sarah was staring knives at Chris, eyes glowing with hatred. Her killing intent seeped into the air, taking the form of a blood-red veil to cover her. Chris was surprised by this, but he’d faced people with a lot more in the past.

  “Why did you run away?” Chris called out to his ex-fiancée. “We were engaged!”

  “I know all about why you wanted to marry me,” Sarah laughed. “I was the perfect cauldron for you, isn’t that right?”

  “What?!” Chris’ face crinkled up as he furrowed his brows. “Cauldron? I would never do that! That man has told you lies!”

  “Nice try,” Sarah glowered. “Don’t bother convincing me. I was blind back then, but I wasn’t gullible. As soon as John told me about stealing the talent, it all clicked. But whatever. The cauldron type techniques can’t work on me anyway. My husband and I had a really good laugh about it.”

  With almost a sigh, Chris broke into a burst of light laughter.

  “Fine,” he said with utmost nonchalance. “He was right. I wanted your talent. Doing the dual cultivation with a beauty like you would have been the icing on the cake! My father will kill your husband and I will capture you alive! I don’t need your mind, heart or soul. The only thing I need is your body! You don’t have to be conscious for the dual cultivation to work. I’ll make you practise with me every day!”

  Chills ran down Sarah’s back, but her uneasiness quickly turned into rage. She released more killing intent, eyes igniting with the desire to torture this man to death. Gripping onto her two nano short swords, she rushed at Chris and aimed to kill.

  Chris toyed with her at first, but as her throttle technique increased the speed of her attacks, he was forced to take the fight more seriously. As she continued to attack, Sarah also released her poison around her. It was at that point that Chris knew he would die if he took her lightly.

  Determined to come out of this fight alive, Chris took out his throwing daggers and began assaulting Sarah from afar, out of the range of her poison. Sarah blocked the throwing daggers with the spine of the short swords; she didn’t want to destroy the daggers, for fear that the shards would still hit her. Her poison was being spread out thinly because of the wind, which meant she couldn’t depend on it for dealing damage unless she got close enough.

  Abruptly, Christ took out a thick, metal rope and threw it at Sarah. The rope expanded, taking Sarah by surprise. As soon as it touched Sarah, it wrapped itself around her and within a second trapped her.

  “You’ve never seen something like this, have you?” Chris smiled and approached Sarah. “They call this a capturing rope. It has runes inside it to make it grow and as soon as it touches the target. You know the rest.”

  He broke into joyous laughter at the thought of capturing her alive; however, a slight smirk spread across Sarah’s face before she vanished, leaving the metal chain behind.

  The cold feeling of imminent death swept over Chris. He knew then that if he did nothing, he would die. Gritting his teeth, he let out a curdling battle cry while clenching his fists together. From his body, lighting came and surrounded him. Sarah, although hidden, was struck in the forehead and launched backwards.

  BANG!

  With a crash, Sarah’s body hit the floor, unconscious.

  Chris was panting; controlling the lighting element was taxing for his Life Power and body. Short of breath, he took a few steps towards the unconscious Sarah. As he drew closer, he grew tenser. She could have very well been faking it, and he didn’t want to get hit with a sneak attack.

  When he was close enough, Chris bent down and moved his right hand towards her robes collar to pick her up. But as his hand inched closer, the cold feeling of impending death once more assaulted him, but this time, it was much worse. It felt like nothing he could do would prevent his death. Despair flooded him and he froze in place, unable to react.

  Abruptly, he felt a tug from the back of his collar. His body lifted off the ground and
was launched backwards.

  Through the rush of air, Chris managed to get a glimpse of the scene. His father was pulling him back with his left hand, and John was standing above Sarah’s body. The man had his sword in a swinging motion; had it not been for his father, Chris would have been killed.

  “You controlling the lightning element caught us by surprise.” John straightened up. “But it won’t save you from death.”

  John’s eye colour was far more intense than before; Chris was reminded of the incident at the tournament. His blood ran cold.

  But instead of staying to fight, Chris’ father tightened his grip and dragged him over a hundred feet backwards. Chris briefly felt confused as to why a Rank 8 would flee from a Rank 3.

  “Look carefully,” Anthony spoke in a low voice. “While he’s standing there, one would think they could prepare for his next attack, but it’s already happened.”

  Chris looked near John. A small, needle-sized blue light flashed now and then all around John. His million threads danced in the light around him, coated in his poison. They were completely undetectable, save for when the light reflected off of the threads.

  Turning around, John bent down to check on Sarah. She was breathing, but unconscious. John noticed the burn mark on her forehead, although it was healing. He picked her up in a princess carry and supported her head on his chest. He then redirected his attention back to the father and son pair. His anger was boiling, but if he acted then he would put Sarah in more danger. The best option, for the time being, would be to get her to safety first. He could slaughter the pair after.

  That was when Anthony dragged Chris and made a run for it.

  “I haven’t captured her yet!” Chris protested in desperation. “We can’t leave!”

  “You stay and we both die!” Anthony growled. “If you haven’t noticed already, I’ve already lost an arm to him in our brief skirmish! Now he’s pissed off because of you. So do you really want to stay and fight?!”