My Guardian System: The Trader

Before leaving, a sudden transformation happened to Jem's arm. His normal-looking arm a while ago has now become red. It looks like a devil's arm. Especially that there were dark lines and thorns on it.

It was the fruit from his success in killing a devil subspecies beast inside the labyrinth.

After staring at it for a moment, he pointed the palm to one of the laying corpses. Reddish color aura was exuding from his palm a second later. The reddish aura then envelops the corpse. 

Jem spoke in a mutter.

"Trade."

After muttering the word, a notification appeared in his vision.

According to the notification, he received 50 points after trading the whole corpse.

The skill he used was only one of the unique abilities of the devil's arm.

With this skill, he did not need to trouble himself in butchering the corpses one by one.

Though, he had to spend 20 ex-energy every time he used it. With his current amount of ex-energy, he wasn't bothered by the energy cost of the spell. But still, Jem was limiting himself in using it.

Regardless, he got 300 points in total. 

It only took him several seconds to trade them all. He then proceeded towards the house of Mr. Barn.

<> <> <>

With gushing saliva, a fierce troll came rushing to attack the Oldman Barn.

"Come and take this Oldman, fool!" Mocked the Oldman Barn as he swung the rake in his hand towards the approaching monster.

Swoosh~

The troll stopped on its feet and bȧrėly avoided the sharp nails of the rake.

Cih!

Oldman Barn clicked his tongue. The troll sneered at him, then resumed its attack. 

Oldman Barn swung back the rake, but this time the troll caught it.

Gorr!

While showing its saw-like teeth, the troll grinned and raised its other arm in the air.

Before the claws tore him apart, "duck!" he heard a commanding voice. It was coming from behind him.

Since the voice was familiar to him, he followed without a second thought.

A flying shovel hit the troll in the face.

Guh!

The troll ġrȯȧnėd and released its hold on the rake and ċȧrėssed its face while stepping back. Blood was dripping on it.

The rake fell to the ground with a clanging noise.

When Oldman Barn glanced behind him, he saw a familiar figure. But his eyes turned wide a second later.

"Miles, why did you come back? I told you to escape!" He yelled in worry.

"Sorry, grandfather, I can't let you die!" Replied a girl with medium-length black hair. 

Normal humans usually had black hair while ex-humans had colored hair. Jem was a special case as he had a pitiful amount of ex-energy when he was born. That's why instead of colored hair, he had black hair instead, not different from normal humans. But after escaping the labyrinth, some strands of his hair turned to silver.

Back to the scene. Miles ran to his side and helped him stand. "Let's go!" She helped her grandfather to escape with her.

However,

He shook his head. "It's useless. My leg lost strength," said Oldman Barn.

Miles grimaced when she noticed a wound on her grandfather's leg.

"Now go! Escape from here while you have the chance!"

Miles bit her lip before replying.

"What's the purpose of my studying to become a part of the Human Enforcer if I could not even protect a single member of my family!"

"Tsk! What a silly girl! We are facing a creature that could not be defeated by normal humans. Please, escape now!"

GWAR! GWAR! GWAR!

"It's too late!" Said Miles.

She picked the rake on the ground and pointed it to the trolls.

Fear was visible in Miles and Oldman Barn's faces when the trolls began to attack. "Getaway!" Miles swung the rake to warn the trolls. Yet, it was cut to pieces by the troll's claws.

GWAR!

One of the trolls comes to attack again.

Miles spread her arms to use her body to shield her grandfather. She closed her eyes as she did it to avoid seeing her grim fate.

"....."

After a few seconds, she realized nothing had happened aside from an unusual groan and a series of dull, heavy sounds. She also heard some piercing sounds before those.

"Eh…?" she heard a mutter that sounded like a question. It was from her grandfather.

A young boy was standing with a nonchalant expression. And the trolls…? They were all dead, lying on the ground!

"H-How did it happen…?" She mumbled.

Perhaps hearing her mumble, the boy glanced at her before turning his gaze to her grandfather and asked.

"Are you okay, Mr. Barn?" His voice and features were somewhat familiar to her.

"J-Jem…?" Oldman Barn muttered his name, somewhat astonished. He couldn't believe what he just witnessed. Was it a dream? He wondered. How did this boy do that? He was questioning himself deep inside.

The moment he mentioned Jem's name, Miles snapped.

"Eeeeyyy! Jem! Is that you?!" She exclaimed after hearing her grandfather.

Jem turned his gaze at her and nodded.

"Yes."

"W-what!" Miles was a little flustered; she couldn't believe it was her wimpy childhood friend.

Anyway, she had many questions she wanted to ask. But before Miles could open her mouth again, Jem already turned his back on them.

"So, the void is there, huh."

Now he was facing the void several steps away from their location.

<Right, calling it void after it touched the ground is inappropriate, host. The most appropriate name for it was the Dungeon Entrance.>

The trader told him.

'Well, it's all the same,' He said, then started moving towards it. 

But,

"Wait! Jem!"