Chapter 71
Chapter 71
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: EP.18 – Man-Eater Ghost vs Man-Eater Ghost? (8)
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—At first glance, it was a monster resembling a troll.
From its appearance to its body structure, it vaguely resembled the rock trolls that the cadets had fought today, so it was only right to call this creature's species a troll.
…However.
'C-Could a troll that massive even exist?'
About five times the size of an ordinary troll.
No, perhaps even larger.
And its skin was dark red.
A troll's skin should normally be rough like rock, but this troll's skin resembled snake scales.
A build several times larger than a normal troll, and dark red skin reminiscent of snake scales.
And moreover.
A chill ran down his spine!!
…Its entire eyeball was dyed blood-red, as if filled with blood.
"H-Huuuh…"
The mage barely resisted the miasma emanating from it, but her legs trembled.
Out of sheer terror.
And she remembered.
'R-Right, I... I know what that is...'
A passage from an ancient tome she had read as a child in her mentor's room, filled with old books. A mishmash of various legends, and the 'nightmare' about a certain ancient species described in that ancient book.
"G-Ghost... King..."
Troll...
No, the moment she uttered the epithet of the creature that couldn't even be defined as a mere troll.
Splashhh!
She saw it rising from the lake.
Despite the lake being quite deep, only half its body emerged, and every time it rose and flailed its arms, water overflowed like a flood, rippling like waves.
It moved as if there were no resistance from the water at all, and upon confirming its appearance, the mage gradually backed away.
"Ghost King?"
The knight asked the mage, who was trembling like a bamboo shoot in the wind.
As if asking whether he knew about that troll.
King, huh...
"Quite a grandiose title for a troll."
"D-Don't talk nonsense! The Ghost King isn't a normal troll!"
Ghost King—a name that seemed arrogant for a mere monster, but considering what that troll had accomplished, it was reasonable for the mage to be gripped by fear.
"W-We have to run! I-It’s not just any monster! It's the Ghost King, the Ghost King! A thousand-year-old troll!"
…?
"The champion of trolls! A monster that devours ogres! A being said to possess immortality! The Kingdom Slayer!"
About a thousand years ago, there was an incident where a kingdom more prosperous than Pendragon fell overnight.
No one knew if it was true since it only existed in literature, but as time passed and relics from the fallen kingdom were discovered, those records gradually became accepted as near-fact.
And the one that destroyed that new kingdom overnight was none other than.
"A single troll's doing, they say..."
An incident caused by a mere monster, and surprisingly, that monster was said to be a troll.
However, that monster was no ordinary troll.
A troll that had lived for a thousand years.
Just as trees, lakes, winds, and volcanoes gain spirits after existing for long ages, ancient humans had to learn through the disaster of annihilation that even monsters, enduring a millennium, become apocalyptic entities that cannot be defined merely as monsters.
"A creature that evolved through the mysteries of a thousand years, the king of all trolls and the pinnacle of monsters—that's exactly what it is..."
Black skin covered in dark red scales.
A body more than twenty times the size of an ordinary troll.
And regenerative power akin to an immortal that no sword, fire, magic, or weapon could kill.
Ghost King.
It could be called a Demon King without issue, but it earned that epithet because its form resembled a ghost, and it was akin to a living natural disaster that no human should ever touch.
Thus.
"W-We have to run! Right now...!"
The mage's terror was simply the survival instinct that any living being should have.
And upon hearing all this explanation, the knight.
"Twenty times? No matter how I look, it seems like only five times at most."
Merely wore a bored expression.
It wasn't because the knight dismissed the mage's explanation or let it go in one ear and out the other.
Nor was he underestimating the monster.
Simply, it was.
'It doesn't look that strong.'
Despite the grandiose explanation, he couldn't see the power to destroy a kingdom.
Instead of trembling in fear while listening to the mage's explanation, the knight narrowed his eyes and assessed the [enemy].
The knight asked.
"It looks bigger than a normal troll, but smaller than what I've heard. What do you think about that?"
"W-Well, perhaps it's lacking nutrients. The Ghost King is said to slumber for hundreds of years at the edge of the continent, where no human foot can reach. Maintaining such a massive body constantly wouldn't be efficient, so it probably sleeps for long periods. And now, the Ghost King has been forcibly awakened from its long slumber by summoning magic and dragged here. In other words..."
…"It's furious from not getting enough sleep, and due to the stress of being forcibly awakened, it's feeling immense hunger."
A basis derived purely from analysis.
However, the mage's analyses rarely missed the mark.
It was the specialty of mages who read the world through mana.
Moreover, if the mage's analysis was correct, that troll undoubtedly needed a massive amount of nutrients due to its rage and hunger, and the target possessing those nutrients was probably.
"Grand name aside, it's a troll at its core."
All monsters eat humans.
But among them, the ones that particularly devour humans are trolls, known as Man-Eater Ghosts.
"W-We’ll all be eaten..."
The mage's head calculated it despite not wanting to.
Comparing to the literature, how many humans the Ghost King needed to consume to regain its original form.
And the result of the calculation.
'Every citizen in the capital—!'
The moment that thing escaped the lake, not a single blade of grass would remain in the capital.
"Haha, it's over. Ghost King, a legendary Ghost King..."
The mage despaired in resignation, revealing hollow hopelessness.
As a mage quick with calculations, her surrender to an unbeatable foe was equally swift.
The mage lost all will to fight, not even thinking to muster her mana.
…However.
"So, that thing is in a severely weakened state."
"…?"
"Yeah, that's all I needed to know."
Stab!
Leaving the mage to despair and collapse on her own, the knight boldly approached the lake.
As he did, he downed five potion bottles at once and jammed a syringe full of potion into his leg.
Crack!
Normally, the daily dose of potion was two.
Exceeding that should cause poisoning, hallucinations, and such, but the knight ignored it.
Now wasn't the time to worry about pain or side effects.
Moreover, fortunately, troll factors coursed through his body, so the side effects would be less than expected.
On the contrary.
"Phew, now I feel alive."
The effects were too potent.
Crack, crack.
His body gradually lightened.
Forced awakening effect.
The bones in his broken and shattered legs mended, and his skin regenerated.
His blood seemed somewhat replenished too, and thus the knight.
"A troll's a troll, no matter what."
The Ghost King didn't understand human language.
Thus, it couldn't comprehend what the puny creature was saying.
However, one thing.
For a moment, the Ghost King's sense of smell caught a scent.
That scent was none other than.
"Oh, this potion? Made from hunting your kin's young ones. What do you think? Pretty well-made, right? Though it's diluted by 30%, which is a bit disappointing."
The scent of its kin carried on the wind—.
The Ghost King didn't know it was just a potion replicated from troll blood by alchemists, but that wasn't the point.
The important thing was that it was provocation.
How dare prey provoke the king—!
The Ghost King, enraged, wanted to immediately grab the puny thing's arms and tear them apart.
Kill it painfully, then chew it to bits for daring to...! No, for provoking it with its kin...! Actually, for provoking itself.
The Ghost King, already fuming from not completing its sleep cycle, was about to charge when.
"Do you think I'm an idiot who sacrificed a leg just to drag you into the lake?"
The knight gazed at the sky, welcoming the rapidly approaching dot.
"I-Instructor! I-I got it!"
"Drop it as is."
"B-But."
"I won't get hurt."
"U-Ugh!"
With a groan of effort, Irene Windler unleashed dozens of large harpoons carried by telekinesis.
Thirteen large harpoons used for whaling.
Thud.
"Thanks."
The knight snatched the falling harpoon and lightly thanked Irene Windler for bringing them all the way here.
Then.
Huuuup!
He gathered all his strength and hurled the harpoon with everything he had.
Boom!!
"In your era, humans probably hadn't started hunting whales yet."
But now wasn't a thousand years ago.
"I'll show you how far human cruelty has advanced."
The harpoon cleaved through the river water and struck the Ghost King's shoulder, causing it pain.
It didn't pierce its tough scales.
Crack.
—But the collision cracked the scales that were like armor.
Only then did the Ghost King realize.
That prey was no easy game.
Thus, the millennium-old Man-Eater Ghost clashed with the modified human born of human malice.
Do you know what happens if you fire a harpoon like a cannon?
Simple.
A cannon in the shape of a harpoon fires.
Its power is a brutal, cruel force capable of hunting even the blue whale, or the massive white-bearded whale.
It was a weapon invented by various kingdoms during the Age of Exploration for whale hunting.
However, after the sea's guardian deity flooded several kingdoms in rage over the deaths of its kin, and humans begged for mercy first, it became a weapon rarely used.
But humans aren't the type to let their inventions gather dust.
They modified large harpoons to hunt large monsters, or sea monsters turned monstrous.
Thus, the cannon in the form of a harpoon was still widely used in the field, and its power and ferocity were even...
Crunch.
…More vicious than during whaling.
The Ghost King was excited.
It wanted to escape the river, but harpoons kept binding it like shackles.
Even the Ghost King couldn't ignore the power of harpoons flying straight at it.
If its condition were normal and it had ingested even one nutrient, maybe, but unfortunately—.
"Where are you opening your mouth!"
The Ghost King was just about to devour a fish, but Lee Han precisely targeted the opening and shoved a harpoon into its mouth.
Tremendous accuracy, speed, and power!
Boom!
The Ghost King's jaw twisted once.
Fizz...
However, true to its legendary monster status, the Ghost King reacted to the harpoon and performed the feat of catching the cannonball-like projectile with its teeth.
A jaw strength that rivaled, no, surpassed Lee Han's immensely.
Nevertheless.
"Pathetic. That's why you're just a troll."
Ughhh!
As the liquid on the harpoon entered its mouth, the Ghost King felt indescribable agony in its tongue and throat.
Pain like thousands of needles stabbing.
Trolls are resistant to most poisons, but this poison had no choice but to work.
A deadly poison specially crafted in the kingdom, produced in limited quantities.
Obtained through a princess sister's reluctant grimace and a dramatic compromise after a tantrum.
"I told you I'd show you how far human cruelty has advanced."
Lee Han kept his promise.
Over long ages, the human greed to dominate the ecosystem's apex through survival competition had produced countless products.
Lived a millennium?
Called the king of monsters with immortal regeneration?
Not impressive at all.
"We're the ones who hunt things like you."
Humans are the creatures who will one day exploit even the moon as a resource.
Lee Han relentlessly pressed the Ghost King with utter indifference, and watching the scene, a certain girl mage thought.
'What is this? Who's the evil one?'
[Aren't we...?]
…Just as she said.
'Humans are putting on quite the sorry spectacle...'
Irene Windler was stunned, unable to distinguish who was evil and who was good.
—However.
Crunch!
"Huh?"
[I-It’s chewing the harpoon...?]
As if proving that even the girl's debate of good and evil was mere human arrogance, the ghost called the pinnacle of monsters, the ferocious Demon King, with a savage aura.
Spoke words and charged.
Enduring even the incoming harpoons.
And finally, it.
Rumble!
Stepped onto land.
"Damn, you're huge."
As big as three elephants combined.
Not just massive, but overwhelming presence and malice-filled killing intent emanated from it.
A pressure that would make even battle-hardened veterans clutch their chests and vomit blood.
That was his impression upon facing it directly, and though it seemed like no being meant to be defeated, he shook his head.
Shing.
For some reason, contrary to his daunted expression, Lee Han drew his sword.
…"I've been doing these pesky ranged attacks like some infantryman, and it's getting old."
A knight couldn't keep playing foot soldier forever.
Thus, swinging his sword through the air a few times with a refreshing smile.
"If I slash until you puke blood, you'll die eventually."
One hand does not retreat.
In Go or battle, retreating meant defeat was all that remained.
Without the slightest step back, he calmly voiced his resolve and advanced.