Chapter 95

I’m translating the chapter now and preserving the in-universe UI as styled HTML blocks. The main work here is separating narration from system text ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and keeping the paragraphing natural in English.CHAPTER_TITLE: Rolling Vulcan

"Berkan and Rickplier, hold the supports. Moxley and Ambrose, take the top of the barrel."

"Yes, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sir!"

It was the same basic procedure Ho-yeong had used when he fired the Bakgyeokpo at the Stage 1 boss, the Hobgoblin. The difference was that the aura reinforcing the Bakgyeokpo this time was incomparably stronger.

The barrel’s stability is perfect. Even if you fire at maximum power, your aim won’t drift.

"Vice-Commander, wrap the mana shell in aura. As much as you possibly can. After that, send your aura in behind us."

"Understood."

Unlike the time he had resorted to firing it himself in desperation, this time a devastating round had been prepared. A mana shell infused with the mana of Marquis Iolid, one of the continent’s foremost magicians, and further reinforced by the aura of Demis Ezef, vice-commander of the Holy Knights.

"Everyone, ready!"

Ho-yeong gripped the underside of the Bakgyeokpo tightly and poured his aura into it with all his strength. Not to stabilize the barrel, but to add propulsion.

Skill Tree Acquired! You have learned the skill tree Aura Booster for the passive skill People of Artillery. By using the aura of the person operating the cannon as fuel, it strengthens the Ancient Mana Stone’s attribute of explosive propulsion.

As the six auras combined, the power of the shell displayed in the HUD rose sharply.

"Fire!"

- Kwaaaaang!

With a deafening blast that shook the grassland, the mana shell flew and smashed the Giant Troll’s head to pieces. Even after it hit the ground, the shell kept rolling for a long while.

"Cease throwing!"

The Giant Troll, with everything above its neck gone, stood motionless. The others merely stared at it in silence.

"D-did we... get it?"

The one who said the thing he should never have said was Keiji Iolid.

Everyone’s eyes snapped to him.

"...Huh? Why is everyone looking at me like that...?"

Just then, the Giant Troll’s massive body twitched.

"I-it’s moving!"

"Aaaagh!"

It even took a stumbling step backward, its arms jerking wildly.

"The marquis’s third son is a necromancer!"

But only for a moment. The Giant Troll toppled backward.

- Kwajak.

The mana shell, which had landed on the ground, only exploded and shattered after the giant body crushed it flat.

- Kwaaang.

With that impact, the Giant Troll’s corpse was blown apart as well, scattering flesh and blood in all directions.

"W-what is that?!"

"Is that the Giant Troll’s heart?"

The people who saw the squirming blood-red mass recoiled in horror.

The heart and organs, flung in different directions and spraying blood as they went, fell into the ring Lucy had left behind.

- PUPUPUPUPOOM!

Inside the ring’s area, violent flames and flashes burst forth with a roar.

"Those magic circles are probably reacting to life force."

The people who had been relaxing were shocked again by Marquis Iolid’s words.

"What? F-father, what do you mean? Life force...? Then does that mean the Giant Troll is still alive?"

With a trembling voice, Keiji asked.

"Since it’s dead, you needn’t worry."

Fortunately, his offhand remark ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had not manifested as necromancy after all.

"But it’s a monster with absurd regenerative power, so even its heart and organs that got torn away are still moving for a while. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be strange for the magic circles to detect life responses."

"I-I see. Then what is that?!"

The last remaining heart, instead of hitting the ground, rose into the air.

"Calm yourself, my son. They must have placed a gravity-reversal spell on that magic circle. It’ll come back down soon enough."

As Kristian said, the Giant Troll’s heart shot upward before falling back down.

"If we had been inside that..."

"We’d have been turned into minced meat."

The soldiers swallowed hard as they looked at the heart reduced to ragged chunks.

"But that didn’t happen, did it? We killed that monster!"

"All of this is thanks to Lord Count of the Border Region. Long live the Lord Count of the Border Region!"

Only belatedly did they fully savor their victory and break into cheers.

"Hold on! We did defeat the Giant Troll with everyone’s strength, but don’t celebrate yet. The fight isn’t over!"

Ho-yeong shouted at the top of his lungs, still unable to catch his breath.

"We have to find the children and the soldiers who were taken and rescue them."

Only then did the soldiers stop chanting their praise.

"But for now, everyone needs to rest. Even if we throw a victory party later, we need to recover immediately."

The soldiers and the Holy Knights were all utterly exhausted. The buff effects had ended, and the excitement of battle had faded. Now it was time for crushing fatigue to come crashing down.

"If we rush off now while we’ve drained ourselves this badly, we’ll only be doing the elves a favor. We need to regroup, get supplies in order, and above all, make sure the plan is solid before we move. Besides, we sent someone to bring troops from the other village, so we need to wait for them to arrive."

In truth, the most exhausted person of all was Ho-yeong. He had fought battle after battle with his own body, directed the operation, and kept his nerves taut while facing an unknown enemy.

"Anyway, we rest now! Thank you all for following my orders so obediently."

Ho-yeong descended the earthen mound on trembling legs, leaned against a large tree, and stretched out his legs.

"Thirteen hours... I can't tell if that's short or long. At least it isn't three hours."

I recommend that you rest for a while. At present, Guardian, your mind and body are both exhausted. A dog that runs too fast doesn’t necessarily get far.

"Haha. That sounds exactly like something you'd see in a game when you've left it running too long...."

Before he could finish, Ho-yeong drifted off to sleep. He dreamed of the day he had become possessed by the game.

* * *

There was a person who became a mother in the morning, a father at noon, and an older brother at night.

"Wake up. Wake up. Everybody up."

Bang Ho-yeong, eldest son and head of the Bang household.

"Bang A-yeong, Bang Ha-yeong, Bang Na-yeong. Time to get up."

He had three little sisters who would have hurt if you put them in your eye. Not because his eyes were too small.

"You were just as sleepy in the morning as a baby as you are now. Back then, at least, you were cute enough that it wouldn't hurt if I put you in my eye... sigh."

His sisters had simply grown too large.

"What are we having for breakfast today?"

Leaving the three sisters buried in a trio of snores, Ho-yeong tied on an apron.

"Let's see... what did the kids have for lunch today?"

He began comparing the girls’ school lunch menus one by one, so the breakfast dishes wouldn’t overlap.

And yet he never once checked his own lunch.

"Soybean paste stew, bean sprout soup, seaweed soup."

He set his brain to half power and started thinking up something that wouldn’t clash.

"Friday morning calls for kimchi stew."

After some deliberation, he settled on ham kimchi stew and fried eggs.

"Wow, good smell."

The first to wake was the eldest daughter, A-yeong.

The savory smell of kimchi and ham being stir-fried seeped into her snoring nose and tickled her awake before she could help it.

"Good smell, my ass. You can’t get up even after I wake you a dozen times, but the second ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠you smell food you start crawling over. That’s a good stink."

"The smell coming out of your mouth is bad smell. Brush your teeth, please."

"I brushed them already, idiot. You go wash your face. Don’t try to season the food with eye boogers."

He chased away the eldest sister, who had come into the kitchen rubbing her eyes for no reason at all.

"Ugh, will she even get married someday?"

While he muttered to himself, his second sister, Ha-yeong, woke up.

"Why are you like this first thing in the morning?"

"No, seriously. In web novels and stuff, when you see a young head of household, the eldest daughter always acts like the mother, right? She makes breakfast, takes care of the younger ones, that whole thing. And your older sister is eighteen years old and still hasn't grown up at all."

"That's because you always do everything yourself. Try giving us some jobs once in a while."

Ha-yeong helped him set the table. Somehow, to Ho-yeong, his second sister, a third-year middle schooler, seemed more dependable than the eldest, who was already in her second year of high school.

"Yaaawn~"

By the time he was frying the eggs, Na-yeong stretched and woke up.

"You're awake, our youngest. Sleep well?"

"Mm-hmm, Dad."

"I'm your brother, not your dad."

She was only six, so she was more like a daughter than a little sister, adorable enough to spoil.

"Oh, fried eggs. How awesome! Hey, brother, my egg please sunny side up."

A-yeong, having washed her face, brightened at the sight of the fried eggs.

At the absurdly strange cooking order, Ho-yeong winced.

"I don't care about sunny side up, just hurry up. We're going to be late."

"Don't worry~ Be happy. Because he married Tae-hi Kim."

"Stop using weird English. Right, Bang A-yeong. Since you live on English like that, you must have done well on your mock exam, huh? Bring your score sheet home today."

"I love the Korean language. Our speech was not created to fit China’s characters and thus cannot be properly aligned with written words."

"Oh, for the love of... if only you could be quiet.... Na-yeong, don't just pick out the ham. Eat the kimchi and scallions too."

Ho-yeong spent so much time looking after the youngest that he barely ate anything himself.

"Brother, eat slowly and go to work. I'll do the dishes."

"No need. Get going to school."

Ha-yeong tried to help him, but by then Ho-yeong was already wearing rubber gloves.

Kid’s grown a lot.

In the middle of winter, the part that should have felt cold in tap water was his hands, and yet for some reason his nose tingled.

"All right, Na-yeong, get ready for kindergarten too. Oh, looks like the bus is already here. Come on, let’s go."

Only after sending all of his sisters off to school did the head of the household begin preparing to go to work.

"All right, then I should head for the commuter bus... what is this? Who is this? Why is Joren Tamer’s face showing up here?"

After shaving and looking into the mirror, Ho-yeong nearly jumped. The face there was not his own, but that of a game character.

"Is this where you were living? Truly, it is a filthy place. A nest of vermin, though marginally better than a goblin’s cave."

Reflected behind him was Lucy Perhela.

"What a fine place for such a distinguished visitor to appear."

Keeping his composure, Ho-yeong turned around calmly.

"You’ve had to keep your miserable life going in this tunnel all this time. For a bug that crawls out of its hole, only a pitiful end awaits. To be crushed underfoot or devoured alive."

He tried to draw his sword, but the only thing in his hand was a razor.

"No matter how much you struggle, you’ll never save the world, let alone the lives of the people standing next to you. Just as you failed to save your parents."

Ho-yeong swung his fist, but it passed straight through Lucy’s face.

"In the end, you won’t even save your own life. Then what will happen to your little sisters? When you become a lost soul wandering through time and space, all you’ll leave those orphans is a corpse without a soul."

With that, Lucy’s illusion vanished.

The mirror reflected nothing. Not his own face, nor Joren Tamer’s.

* * *

"Hup!"

Ho-yeong woke from the dream, looked around, and froze in shock.

The Giant Troll’s corpse was gone.