Reborn As A Nephilim: The Rise of A Manaless Prince

Following the plume of smoke, Arvell and Titus raced through the forest.

'Seriously… Why do I keep having to bother saving these people?'

Arvell glared angrily at the plume of smoke with visible annoyance.

If he was still in need of hunting for coins, he would have definitely not bothered coming to help some strangers.

'Sigh… I hope at least whatever or whomever it is attacking them is strong. It'll at least make my time feel less of a waste.;

Arvell turned over to Titus who was running next to him.

He'd seen Titus's speed before, but Arvell still couldn't help but watch on with amazement when he saw it.

Titus was able to run at Arvell's top speed even when he was running with his temporal manipulation active.

While Arvell wasn't using the haste on his hasty iron sword, since the skill had a 4 hour cooldown time between uses, he was by no means slow without it.

'Just what is he? First, my status skill doesn't work, next, he lets the beast go free without killing it, and now he can match my top speed?'

The beast in question didn't tag along with them.

It wasn't nearly fast enough to keep up with the two of them, so Titus gave it one last stroke on the head before setting it free.

The beast however was reluctant to part, something Arvell found somewhat amusing, considering around 5 minutes ago, it would have done anything and everything to separate itself from Titus.

As Arvell neared the cause of the smoke, he noticed a small patch of forestry lit ablaze by a roaring fire.

"As expected, the forest has been lit ablaze."

Titus nodded his head.

"People are in the fire."

Arvell squinted his eyes, trying to make out any signs of movement from within the fire.

However, he was still too far to accurately judge.

If anything he needed to get closer.

Arvell put his hand into his pocket and stealthily opened up his inventory.

[Inventory]

He pulled out a small flask filled with a soapy fluid, identical to the one he used when taking out the treant, and doused it on himself, covering himself from head to toe with a soapy fluid.

From Titus's perspective, it looked like Arvell covered himself in water to avoid getting burned by the raging flames.

While he wasn't completely wrong, that wasn't quite it either.

The elixir Arvell applied onto himself was a special fire-resistance concoction.

Something Arvell whipped together to prevent himself from being burned in similar situations.

Arvell was tempted to give Titus a bottle too, but he withheld that decision.

He couldn't let him know that he brought elixirs with him to the examination.

Considering that this examination was a surprise, none of them had time to prepare, so if Arvell flaunts elixirs like that, it couldn't look any more suspicious.

'He probably has his own way of dealing with this right?'

After the display of strength he witnessed from Titus, Arvell was sure he would surprise him yet again.

However, Titus stared at the blazing forest fire with a blank expression.

He put his hand into his pocket and produced what appeared to be a small crumby object.

'Is that… A cookie?' Arvell watched Titus with a look of blatant disbelief.

How was a cookie going to help them in their scenario?

'Wait… is that cookie special or something? Perhaps it's made using various medicinal herbs?'

Arvell had heard from Lykos that there is a way to make some elixirs easier to consume by turning them into food.

However, these delicacies were often the richest of the rich.

Arvell had seen and even tried some of these dishes while he was still a prince.

But… those dishes almost always gave off dense medical aromas.

However, even with his sensitive Nephilim nose, all Arvell could smell was burning wood.

Titus stared at the cookie with all of his concentration, as if he was trying to bore a hole right through it.

"Goodbye."

Titus plopped the cookie into his mouth and closed his eyes as if trying to savour the lasting taste on his palette.

Titus turned to Arvell.

"I am ready."

Caught off-guard Arvell simply nodded.

"Okay, let's get going then."

The two broke into the flaming forest and began to search for any signs of life.

They kept their heads low to avoid inhaling any poisonous substances, but even if they had been poisoned, Arvell was sure he'd be able to escape the ordeal almost unscathed.

Mostly due to his stockpile of various elixirs inside his inventory.

Arvell turned to see portions of Titus's shirt badly singed, but strangely enough…

His body appeared to be completely fine.

Albeit somewhat covered in soot.

'What kind of effects did that cookie have?'

Arvell was somewhat tempted to ask Titus, but he refrained from it.

After all, the two of them had more pressing concerns at the moment.

They needed to find any survivors and get them out.

It wasn't long before Arvell found a girl collapsed among the wreckage of burning branches.

The girl didn't appear to be physically harmed but she was still unconscious.

Arvell however realized that girl seemed somewhat familiar…

'Wait, this is the same girl I rescued a little while ago.'

Arvell saw her pitiful state and shook his head.

'This poor girl can't seem to get a break, first, it was being attacked, and now it's this.'

Arvell approached her and placed the back of his hand in front of her mouth.

'Good.'

"She's still breathing," turning towards Titus, Arvell responded.

Titus responded by nodding his head in acknowledgment.

"We should get her out of here."

Arvell lifted the girl in a princess carry and pointed with his head at the way they came.

The two couldn't find any other people in the nearby area, so either there was no one there in the first place, or they were somehow trapped under the burning logs.

Either way, it meant that they had to leave now.

Even if someone was trapped under the burning logs, they would have already become charred corpses by now.

It wasn't worth risking the life of an injured person to hunt for people who most likely were already dead.

That was simply stupid if anything.

*CRASH*

*ROAR*

One of the nearby trees collapsed onto the ground, directly blocking the path from which the two entered.

"F*ck."

Arvell cursed under his breath as he saw their only escape route blocked by a large flaming tree.

"Allow me."

Titus walked past Arvell and approached the fallen tree.

The diameter of the cylindrical tree trunk was the full length from his finger to his shoulder.

It was quite large, to say the least.

However, this wasn't any concern to Titus.

He walked up and readied his fist.

Arvell's eyes widened in disbelief.

'No way… Is he going to punch it?'

*BANG*

Titus's fist was so fast it would have been nothing but a blur for the average untrained eye.

Before Arvell could even blink, the massive tree was split in two, with each of the two pieces flying backwards, landing sever metres away.

Seeing this, Arvell's breathing became ragged.

A kid his age was able to display this level of strength?

This was something he had never imagined!

A maniacal grin formed on his lips.

'I want to fight him!'