One Is Enough
“Just one—”
“TROOOO!”
A troll slammed its axe downward.
The weapon was a crude thing—wood wrapped with stone and animal sinew—but the destructive force of a troll’s brute strength and massive frame was nothing to sneer at.
“If that lands clean, my skull’s going to crack open like a melon.”
Ho-yeong leaped backward to dodge it.
Short, one-motion back dash. Don’t bring my feet together. Push off with the lead foot forward… right, that’s what Lilian taught me.
He had picked up the essentials of the Tamer sword style Lilian had shown him in no time at all. He was getting used to the body of Joren, the one he had possessed, almost as quickly.
Well, footwork is footwork. Swordsmanship or boxing, it’s basically the same idea.
That was thanks to the years he’d spent learning various martial arts as a kid.
“Haa!”
He tried to carve a diagonal cut across the troll’s neck while the beast was left open from its missed swing.
“TROOOOL!”
The troll twisted its upper body aside in a hurry, and the tip of his blade only managed to tear through its shoulder.
Damn it. I moved too fast. This isn’t as easy as Mandragorani tea.
The troll violently swept a bare hand through the air, knocking the flat of his blade aside before falling back. They settled into a standoff again.
Hoo. If I lose focus even a little, the aura wrapped around my sword scatters.
His control over aura was still rough, but the fact that he had already learned how to use it in less than a night meant he was, if anything, absurdly talented.
“Troooool…”
Blood had made the troll furious.
“That regeneration speed is unreal.”
The bleeding stopped, and fresh flesh sprouted back in an instant.
All right. Don’t swing big. Keep it small. Use the difference in reach.
Ho-yeong clamped both upper arms tight and used only a snap of the wrist to slash in short, rapid bursts.
“TROOOL?!”
The troll was caught off guard by the sudden change in attack.
Thanks to the light spell Rubia had cast, the sword shimmered each time it moved, as though threading light into the night. That made the troll’s eyes swim and made it harder for him to read the blade’s path.
“Heh heh.”
But even while being cut by the sword, the troll didn’t care in the slightest and kept swinging its stone axe.
“What the hell. This thing’s completely insane.”
Ho-yeong nearly jumped out of his skin.
Maybe he’s planning to hit back while taking the little cuts, since they’ll heal right away anyway? If that’s how he wants to play it—
He let the troll’s right hand carrying the stone axe slide off the flat of his blade, then slipped around to the outside of the creature’s body.
Just as the troll, startled, poured all its strength into shoving him away—
“Hup!”
He sent a merciless low kick crashing into an exposed shin. There was no aura in it, but with Joren’s strength and Ho-yeong’s own power combined, the Dandanum shin guard made the blow land with heavy force.
CRACK.
The shinbone jutted out.
“TROOO…?!”
The troll’s eyes bulged so wide they looked ready to pop out at the sight.
“TROOOOOOL!”
Its balance collapsed and it crumpled.
“Haaah!”
Ho-yeong seized the opening and wrapped his sword in aura.
Thud.
The troll’s head came off and toppled backward, still resting there for a moment, separated from the body.
With its neck severed clean through, there was no way even a troll could regenerate from that.
Because it was night, and because the residential district was full of hiding places, the purge wasn’t easy.
The one saving grace was that the trolls acted independently rather than in any coordinated formation, so Ho-yeong divided the troops and ordered them to pick the enemy off one by one.
“Hey, Yak! Stay with me. Are you all right?”
“U-uh… I-I am fine.”
Yak, the mid-rank soldier traveling with Ho-yeong as a two-man unit, had suffered a severe head wound from a troll’s stone axe.
“Troll blood was used as a healing potion ingredient, wasn’t it? Maybe we can feed him some of that blood.”
The idea made sense. In the game, if you collected the reward item troll blood after killing trolls, you could use it as a material to make healing potions.
Troll blood must be purified after being mixed with Mandragora sap before it can be brewed into a potion fit for humanoid races to drink. If unrefined troll blood is consumed, the healing effect is extremely minor and only side effects such as vomiting and fever will occur.
But the status window’s information was bleak.
“I… leave me be, Commander—no, my lord.”
Yak forced the words out.
“This kind of injury… is nothing. I can endure it.”
Blood streamed through the crack in his dented helmet.
“I promised I’d help revive Tamer Territory… and bring my parents here from home.”
Even now, words he absolutely should not have been saying spilled out of him in a steady stream.
“H-ha, haha. And, um… it’s embarrassing to say, but to my childhood friend I want to— I want to make a ring from the legendary primordial mana stone that’s said to come from Tamer Territory, and then propose….”
“Don’t plant a death flag. Shut up.”
Ho-yeong hauled Yak back to his feet. Compared to the three men’s worth of strength in Ho-yeong’s body, the skinny soldier felt as light as a branch, but a corner of his heart sat heavy as an ancient tree.
“You’re not allowed to die. I’ll resurrect you and scold you myself. I brewed Mandragorani horn-leaf tea and made you drink it, so you’d better keep your strength up. Anyway, why the hell aren’t they coming? They should’ve been here by now.”
Ho-yeong waited anxiously for someone.
“Rani!”
And soon, the ones he had been waiting for arrived—no, the things he had been waiting for.
“Rani-rani! (We’re here!)”
“Raaani… raniiih. (You talk too fast, we can’t keep up.)”
“Oh, good. You made it. Nice work.”
Mandragorani 8, 9, and 13 had arrived. They’d followed his scent and found him well enough. For reference, the other specimens had been locked in a temporary pen for the time being.
“Number 8. Carry this soldier back to the barracks! If you run into any trolls on the way, don’t fight—just keep running until you get there. And if you drop Yak somewhere along the road, I’ll turn you into barbecue, understand?”
“Rani!”(Don’t worry!)
Ho-yeong laid Yak belly-down across Number 8’s back. In the meantime, he had tied ropes around the Mandragorani’s necks as a makeshift way for riders to hold on.
“Perfect for transporting the wounded. It’s not like I can just put him on a horse and send him off. Number 13, go circle around and find the trolls! If you spot one, report back to me. Number 9, stay by my side!”
He mounted up again and resumed the search.
“Aaaagh…!”
One block away, a soldier was locked in a fierce fight with a troll.
“TROOOO!”
The troll kicked him down and raised a stone spear high overhead.
“Number 9! Body slam! No, wait. Too far. What do I do…?”
For a split second, Ho-yeong hesitated.
“Right. Edification!”
He spent 5 EP and instantly converted the beast.
“Tro? Trooo…? (What? What’s happening to me right now?)”
“Throw that to the side!”
The troll, frozen with the raised spear in its hand, stared in bafflement. It was stunned that a human was giving orders directly into its mind.
“TROOL? TROTROLL?! (You human, what did you do to me?!)”
The beast didn’t throw the spear, but neither did it attack the soldier on the ground. Instead, it just stood there in confusion.
Troll Spearman #002
Stats | Grade | Base ~ Max
Strength B: 45 ~ 47
Intelligence B: 5 ~ 6 (For a troll, it’s actually pretty sharp.)
Mana X: 0 ~ 0
Charm D: 1 ~ 3
Command F: -10 ~ -3
Spirit C: 7 ~ 9 / (Quirk: Likes smashing prey’s skulls.)
Edification D: -6 ~ -3 (Still harbors hostility toward humans. Requires careful management.)
“Rio, get down at once!”
“Y-Your Excellency…? W-what in the world is going on….”
True to his duties as commander of the station guard, Rio was quick on the uptake. Even while struggling to believe what he had just seen, he hurriedly moved out of the way.
“Join up with the soldiers at the checkpoint. I’ll take care of this.”
Then another troll appeared behind the spearman.
“Troo?”
A skinny one, carrying a wooden club.
It stared blankly at its fellow standing there, watching a human flee, as if its brain had simply stopped.
“Tro, trotroll? Troooool!”
Before long, the club troll shouted as if it were lecturing the spear troll.
“Troo, trotro! (I don’t know either. Don’t ask me. You’re—)”
Apparently they had never gotten along, because Spearman #002 bared its tusks and growled right back.
Ho-yeong quickly checked the club troll’s stats. Its strength was only 36 to 38, a fair bit lower.
“Beat that bastard up!”
At his command, the spear troll began stabbing at its own kin with the stone spear.
“TRUOOOOL! TROOO….”
Caught in the sudden ambush, the club troll couldn’t even react before the spear pierced deep into its neck.
“TROOO! (Die!)”
Leaving the spear embedded in the neck, #002 snatched the fallen troll’s club and began smashing its head in over and over.
Using a troll to kill another troll, huh. So that’s troll logic. They say scammers are best at catching scammers—guess I should remember this tactic.
Because the stone spear lodged in its neck hindered regeneration and sealed its movement, the club troll was beaten senseless until it finally went limp.
“TROOOO! (I won!)”
#002 pulled the spear free and shouted in triumph.
“TROOOO…?”
Then it tilted forward in confusion as its field of vision suddenly plunged downward.
Ho-yeong had approached from behind and cut the beast clean through the waist.
“Tro… troooo.”
Devious. Humans are.
The creature wriggled its severed upper half and crawled toward the lower half at its waist. Ho-yeong grimaced, torn between its stubborn vitality and a little bit of guilt.
“Sorry for using you and then killing you, but… I couldn’t really help it.”
Be careful. Trolls can survive for a considerable time even after their upper and lower halves have been separated. They cannot regenerate a severed lower half, but if the detached lower half is brought close to the upper half, the cut surfaces will fuse and the wound will heal.
“Got it.”
Ho-yeong beheaded it on the spot.
Its combat strength is usable, but that one’s too violent and unstable. Is that because my level in Edification is still too low?
The biggest reason was that #008 still held hostility toward humans.
Still, I used EP 5 to save Rio and made one troll kill another through mutual destruction, so that’s something….
Behind him, Mandragorani 9 was trembling like a leaf.
“Rani… rani-rani. (Please don’t kill me. I’ll be good and listen, rani.)”
“Yeah. If you keep listening from now on, nothing like that’ll happen, so don’t worry, rani.”
He mounted up again, and just then two trolls burst out of an alley.
“TROOOO!”
“TROTRO!”
“Ah, shit. I killed the wrong one just now. I should’ve kept him alive a little longer!”
Both of them were equipped with matching twin battle axes.
“Ha. Why the hell do the ones that never cooperate show up as a duo all of a sudden? Hmm… maybe I can convert one like before and make them troll each other?”
But judging by their close bond and low edification resistance, making them team-kill one another looked pretty difficult.
“Or maybe if I convert them both at once and leave them too stunned to react, then finish them—”
Edification is currently on cooldown. Remaining time: approximately 1 minute.
“Damn it! If there’s a cooldown, you should’ve told me earlier.”
Cooldown time scales with the target’s strength and the difficulty of conversion.
For a moment Ho-yeong considered running, then changed his mind.
“Fine. Number 9, scream the instant those bastards charge!”
Just as he decided to use Number 9 instead of backing off—
BOOM!
A huge explosion erupted between the two trolls.