Ranking System

[Eric POV]

Charles... I glanced at him while we went to the nearest town. I felt his character was too suspicious for someone who appeared out of nowhere.

Without a doubt, this person was the invader. Going against him would be suicide, and with the powers he has given me, I would use this god given chance to use it to the fullest.

As long as the man in front of me won't kill me, it doesn't matter if he razes half of the world. My living condition would be better than my old life as a plebeian bandit.

"Boss! How would you like me to conquer this world?"

With him being in power, I obviously would bootlick my way to his liking. Showing that he had authority would make him feel better.

"Do whatever you want. I don't care as long as it's entertaining."

"..."

So he is treating me like a toy... This situation was worse than I thought. If he finds me boring, then he will get rid of me. And if he finds me useless, he will also get rid of me. And if I had accomplished his goal, he also might get rid of me.

"You're smarter than you look. I don't know why you became a bandit."

"..."

Can he read my thoughts?

"I can."

"..."

[Charles POV]

What I said was a lie, but I could tell his thoughts from his expression alone. He knows I might get rid of him if he did anything, not to my liking.

"So, are you going to answer my previous question?"

Eric looked at me, still panicking inside of his mind. He quickly shook those thoughts away and began to answer my question.

"Robbing a merchant is the easiest way to earn some money. I may look weak in your eyes, but I can say that I'm fairly powerful to an ordinary person."

"And you could get away from those people that could crush you?"

"I have an artifact that allows me to hide my presence. I'm not sure why it doesn't work against you, but I'm smart enough to know who I can beat and can not."

For a petty bandit, he seemed like he was doing well. On our way to any civilization, we continued to talk about Eric's situation.

In a matter of minutes, we arrived in town. Honestly, I never knew the sea could have such a lovely aesthetic. All the buildings in this town were made of serpentine and many other rocks from the sea.

"Identification."

The guards demanded we show some kind of identity to enter this town. Using some hallucination curse, I entered without giving anything I didn't have. Eric was surprised by what had just happened but shut up and continued to follow me.

Observing the town, despite looking like the most normal person in the sea, I stood out the most. A human like me wasn't supposed to exist in a place underwater.

"Go run wild. I won't interfere with anything. If you get captured, you die, and if you take over this town, you win."

I had no interest in interfering with what Eric was going to do. Now that we were here, it was time for him to show his work.

Eric, hearing what I said, nodded thoughtfully. He knew I was using him. If he did a good enough job to appeal to me, I would let him live. This was the unspoken agreement that we had.

[Third Person POV]

Charles had disappeared from Eric's sight, but Eric knew that he was watching from a distance away. Taking his first step toward being a king, Eric went to a ranking shop in this town.

Instead of immediately raiding the shop, Eric observed the best item for powering up to take first. The shopkeeper who saw Eric was suspicious of his actions. From his instinct alone, he could tell that he wasn't here to buy anything.

He secretly called for a guard that works for the store. He also had to have a quick word with him for letting someone as suspicious as him be in the store.

Eric had taken a few glances between the shopkeeper but hadn't noticed anything. Finding something he needed, he took the artifact and went to the next.

The guard that the shopkeeper had called had gone to Eric, seeing him do some suspicious activity.

"You need to leave this store. You're not welcome here."

Eric felt the hostility coming from the guard. He took a few seconds to think of his next time.

"Alright. I will leave. RIGHT AFTER I STAB YOU!"

While talking calmly, Eric sneakily used one of the sword artifacts he grabbed to stab the guard in the heart. Now that he was compromised, he grabbed all the power-up items and tried to absorb them in one go.

"AHHH!!!"

Eric felt the power inside of him increasing. His body was breaking down, having to absorb too much power for his body to handle. Luckily Charles had made him immortal, which had boosted the speed of his body strengthening.

The shopkeeper thought that Eric was crazy for using all these products one at a time. He quickly used an artifact to shoot Eric in the head, which destroyed it in a flash.

"Hahaha..."

All the pain he felt had subsided, and his head, which was destroyed, was repaired instantly. He was ecstatic by the gift Charles had given him.

Not only did he lose the ability to die, but his body's growth rate was incomparable to his previous self. Finishing with what he had done, he looked at the shopkeeper that shot him and quickly grabbed his neck and squeezed it tight.

"Why..?"

It was hard for the man to talk, with his neck on the verge of being snapped.

"Why? It was because you were unlucky. I only chose this store because it was close by. Thanks for all your stuff. I will take care of them very well."

Eric snapped the storekeeper's neck and took everything that he needed.