Becoming the Dark Lord

Franky had turned into a child.

Luke stared at him, too stunned to react.

“Hahahahahahaha!” Artemis had been cackling inside the necklace for several minutes. “He turned into a tiny little brat! Hahahahahaha!”

“Shut up, you gluttonous woman!” the little boy snarled.

Judging by his appearance, Franky looked about five or six. Seven at most. His long black hair was a tangled mess.

“Holy shit...” Luke muttered. “What the hell happened to you, Franky?”

“I already told you, I don’t know! You think I wanted to turn into one of you human rats?”

“That tiny little voice!” Artemis dissolved into laughter again while Luke continued staring in disbelief.

None of this made any damn sense.

“He’s not even wearing pants!”

“Gluttonous woman! Ugly! Fat!”

“Listen to him! He sounds like an angry chipmunk!”

Before Luke could ask another question, the System answered one for him.

A System window appeared in front of Luke.

[Servant of the Dark Lord System]: Every tyrant needs servants worthy of their greatness. A Dark Lord tolerates no weakness. Only the strongest survive. Through the servant bond, your soldiers evolve, transcend, and march toward legend.

Name: Frankzaroth

Level: 0

Race: Jormungandr

Rank: F

Class: —

Titles: [Servant of the Dark Lord]

Full information will be processed once the Servant’s Class is selected.

It still says his race is Jormungandr. So why the fuck did he turn into a kid?

The evolution from [Familiar] to [Servant] was the obvious culprit. The question was what the hell it had done.

“Turn me back into a snake, human! A beautiful snake!” Franky demanded.

“How the hell would I know how to do that? You disappeared for a year, and this is how I find you. You’re the one who needs to explain what happened.”

“I said I don’t know!”

“Fine. You don’t know. Then start from the beginning. Tell me everything that happened after you got teleported.”

“I’ll talk when that woman stops laughing.”

Artemis tried to compose herself and failed miserably. “I’m crying, man. And I don’t even have eyes. He always finds a way to get screwed. Ever since the tutorial.”

The boy lunged at Luke, reaching for the necklace.

“Shut up! Shut up!”

“Whoa. Easy, brat.” Luke caught Franky in midair with one hand. “I know you’re pissed, but calm down, short stuff.”

“Don’t call me short! I’m a mighty evil snake! Evil!”

That only made Artemis laugh harder.

Luke held Franky in the air while the boy thrashed and kicked. “Damn, Mowgli. You stink.”

He set him back down. Franky wore an adult man’s shirt that hung from his tiny body like a dress and nearly dragged across the ground. He was filthy from head to toe. Leaves tangled in his hair, mud streaked his skin, and scratches marked his arms and legs. His shirt was torn, and snot ran from his nose.

“You look terrible. Now calm down and explain what happened.”

Franky’s explanation was a mess, but Luke pieced it together. When the event began, he’d been transported to an island with food and resources. After a while, the System teleported him somewhere else. Each area was harder than the last.

“Got it. You had your own version of the event.”

The problem was that Franky couldn’t read. For beasts, the System didn’t work the same way it did for humans. There were no clear interfaces, messages, or windows. It communicated through sensations, impulses, and even smells.

“So I wandered around hunting. Sometimes I ran into bigger beasts, and I could tell my rank had gone up.” Franky lifted his chin proudly. “I reached E-rank after devouring cores I stole from—”

“And you were just fine on your own?”

“It was too easy. I barely noticed any of you were gone, you or that rat family of yours.”

“The Baummans?”

“Yes. And I didn’t miss them.”

“Right...”

“And I definitely wasn’t crying in the forest before you found me.”

“I’m pretty sure you were,” Luke said.

“We literally heard you crying in the woods,” Artemis added.

“I wasn’t crying. I was laughing. I was happy to be out in nature! Far away from that rat family and their stupid warm, comfortable den.”

Franky kept insisting he hadn’t missed anyone or gone looking for anyone. Luke tuned him out and focused on the System interface.

How the hell does a child have a System class?

Children could access a limited version of the System, but they didn’t awaken classes until adulthood. Even reaching level five usually took most of their childhood.

No child can have a class. But he does. Maybe he’s considered older by the standards of his actual race?

That was the closest thing to a logical explanation.

Classes and professions favored intelligent races with no natural way to grow stronger. Humans were the perfect example: physically weak, highly adaptable, and backed by one of the most complete Systems among the humanoid races. They were blank slates, with broader potential than races whose Paths were already shaped by biology.

That could explain the Class, but it still didn’t explain the body. Franky eventually finished his explanation by saying he had turned into a “rat,” his word for humans.

This is probably my fault. It must have something to do with the hero’s death. The timing is too perfect to be a coincidence.

Luke checked his system notifications and confirmed that a message saying the familiar was evolving had appeared after the hero died.

“And no,” Franky continued, “I was not crying in the forest while calling for the rat family. I only called their names to see if they were nearby. Because they’re weak. They were probably terrified without me.”

“Sure. I believe you,” Luke said. “Now what am I supposed to do with you? You’re dead weight.”

“I am not dead weight! I’m a mighty snake!”

Artemis burst out laughing again.

“I’ve got it. I can put you inside my soul.”

Luke tried it. Franky vanished.

“It worked. At least that part of the ability hadn’t changed.”

When Luke brought him back out, Franky reappeared with tears in his eyes and his head hanging low.

“What’s wrong?” Luke asked.

“Dark...” Franky’s voice came out small. “It was dark.”

His face crumpled. Luke stared at him. For the first time since finding Franky, he didn’t look ridiculous.

He looked small.

“Luke, you made the child cry,” Artemis said.

Luke awkwardly patted the sobbing boy on the back. “Hey, that’s not my fault. You never cared when I put you in there before. I didn’t know you were afraid of the dark now.”

“I’m not afraid!”

“So... can I put you back in there or not?”

The boy froze. He looked up at Luke, and his eyes filled with tears again.

“Shit...”

Franky burst into tears.

Well, that answered that.

“Yeah, man,” Artemis said. “We’re officially babysitters now.”

Franky sat on the ground, still crying. “Where’s... where’s the rat family? The female rat, Lillian? Not that I miss them. Or the food she gave me.”

Luke resumed patting him on the back. “I’m already trying to get back to the Baummans. Don’t worry.”

Am I seriously comforting a child right now? I was beating people senseless a few days ago.

The sooner they found the Baummans, the better.

Luke scooped Franky up.

“Put me down! Put me down, human!” Franky screamed.

“Somebody call the cops! He’s kidnapping a child!” Artemis shouted. “FBI! Open up!”

“I need to move fast, idiot. Stop squirming. This is the only way.”

[Cloak of the Arcane Witch activated]

Luke shot through the forest at high speed.

“Stop! It hurts!” Franky screamed.

Luke stopped immediately. “What’s wrong?”

“It hurts...” the little boy whimpered. “When you ran.”

Oh, shit...

“Inertia, Luke,” Artemis said.

“Yeah. If I went much faster, I could kill him.”

“Physics is still a thing, man.”

Franky’s body was far too fragile.

“Damn it. How does Superman carry people at superspeed without turning them into paste?”

“The guy catches airplanes with his bare hands, and this is where you start questioning the logic?”

Luke continued at a slower pace.

The cloak’s gravity field only affects me and anything bound to me as equipment. Living things don’t count. Obvious in hindsight. I’ve punched plenty of people with the cloak active. I’ve just never tried to keep one of them safe.

He slowed down and jumped. Once airborne, he deactivated the cloak and let his momentum carry them forward. Super jumps seemed like the best solution.

“How’s that, Franky? Better?”

When Luke looked down, the boy was trembling from head to toe.

“High! High! High! High!”

“Too high?”

“Too high! Too high! Too high! I don’t like heights!”

“But you used to fly.”

“High! High! High!”

The little boy squeezed his eyes shut and clung to Luke, his fingers digging into him.

“Please. Please. Down. Please.”

In the end, Luke had to keep his jumps so low that they weren’t worth the effort. Running without the cloak was easier.

Somehow, carrying one tiny snake-child was becoming a logistical nightmare.

Luke stopped. “You’re becoming a real pain in the ass. Maybe I should leave you at the castle.”

Branches, rocks, practically anything could hurt Franky if Luke moved too fast.

“I can survive on my own, human. Leave me in the forest.”

“Seriously? I can leave you here?”

“Why are you abandoning me so quickly?!”

“You’re the one who told me to.”

“I can take care of myself just fine!”

“So I can leave you here with everything that wants to eat you?”

Franky stiffened and shrank into himself. “Y-you decide.”

“Yeah. Definitely not.” Luke stopped to consider his options. “How do you feel in that human body? Are you in pain or anything?”

The boy’s stomach growled.

“Was that your stomach? Are you hungry?”

“No,” Franky answered.

His stomach growled again.

“Yeah, you are.”

“We all are,” Artemis said. “Some of us have been starving for minutes.”

***

“It’s cold!” Franky complained.

“Too bad. Hold still.”

Franky stood ankle-deep in the river, shivering hard enough to rattle his teeth, while Luke used telekinesis to scoop up water and blast him with it.

Franky sputtered and wiped the water from his face. “I don’t need to shed my skin. I don’t need a bath.”

“No. You definitely need a bath.”

Luke filled a bucket and dumped it over him. Franky tried to scramble out of the river, but Luke hauled him back in.

“You smell like piss. It’s disgusting.”

“Of course I do. I covered myself in my own scent to keep predators away.”

“Well, it worked. You’re warding off everyone. Now use the damn soap and scrub yourself.”

Luke blasted him with more water.

Artemis tried to hold back, but laughter escaped her anyway. “He’s naked!”

Once the smell was finally gone, Luke dried Franky and gave him another shirt that swallowed his tiny frame. Even then, the boy kept shivering.

“We’re going to have to buy you some children’s clothes. Lucky for you, there’s a city nearby.”

Luke handed him an apple.

Franky turned it over in his hands. “This is food?”

“For humans.”

Franky looked even more suspicious, then took a bite.

While Franky ate, Luke dried his hair. Then he drew his kukri and hacked off the worst of the tangles.

“I used all my healing potions during the event. Otherwise, I’d patch you up.”

He waited until Franky finished eating, then offered him more food.

Franky looked at it, then away.

“I’m not hungry anymore.”

His stomach growled a second later. Luke pretended not to hear it.

“Let’s head to the city.”

“No... jumping,” Franky said, almost too quietly to hear.

“No jumping. We’ll ride.”

Luke summoned the Spectral Beast in the form of the [Ivory Leaping Spiderr] and examined the creature’s skills.

Then he saw the final skill.