Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: Betrayal in the Dark
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After leaving Silion in the serf village near the forest, Eugene and the subjugation team arrived straightaway at the low hill where the dungeon was located, passing through the deep woods.
Just as Galpredic had done during the Kaemun subjugation, Eugene ordered a search of the area around the dungeon first.
Perhaps because they had taken down quite a few low-tier monsters during the first subjugation, no new monster burrows were found.
“If there’s nothing unusual, we head in right away.”
Partek hurriedly followed behind Eugene as he walked up to the massive bolt that had been re-secured after the Kaemun subjugation.
“I’ll help, Lord Eugene.”
“No, it’s fine.”
Eugene waved him off and placed both hands under the bolt without hesitation.
Maverick and the mercenaries inwardly scoffed at the sight of him trying to lift the thick, three-meter-long bolt reinforced with steel plating on the outside all by himself.
No matter how much he wanted to show off, how could he possibly lift something that weighed as much as an average mid-tier monster?
Thud!
He lifted it!
“……!”
Maverick and the mercenaries stared blankly at Eugene and the bolt crashing down with a heavy thud.
“What are you gawking at? We’re heading in now.”
The mercenaries, their mouths hanging open at Eugene’s words, jolted to attention and began filing into the dungeon in formation.
‘Hmph! Doesn’t matter. One stab in the body and they’re all the same.’
Downplaying Eugene’s display of superhuman strength as best he could, Maverick headed into the dark dungeon as well.
* * *
Keee! Kyeng!
The last kobold, its neck half-severed, let out a death cry and collapsed.
“Check casualties and report.”
Eugene turned his head, shaking the blood off his battle axe.
“No issues here.”
“One minor injury. No deaths or serious wounds.”
At Partek and Brin’s reports, Eugene turned his gaze elsewhere.
Maverick, receiving Eugene’s look, hemmed and hawed.
“Uh, no deaths. No serious wounds either. Minors… uh, three, yeah, three.”
“You call a completely mangled arm a minor injury? Or is he left-handed?”
“…….”
Maverick shut his mouth after glancing at the mercenary whose right wrist had been chewed to shreds by a kobold.
“Then that’s one serious and two minors. Losses like this in our second fight? Lord, it’s only been half a day, and you know we haven’t even hit thirty percent of the minimum subjugation quota?”
“I know. I know. Anyway, I can still fight, and we’ve got five more who are fine, right? Kobold or goblin, whatever comes out, I’ll cut them all down…….”
“What if a mid-tier shows up? Can you handle it alone, Lord?”
“You fucking—! I’ll take care of it!”
Maverick hurled his helmet to the ground and bellowed.
“See that you do. Partek, Brin. Get started.”
“Yes, Lord Eugene!”
The mercenaries, led by Partek and Brin, began efficiently gathering the monster corpses alongside the porters.
The twenty-odd kobolds were swiftly dismantled, with mana stones and byproducts neatly collected.
Meanwhile, Maverick’s followers slumped awkwardly and took a rest.
Nine had entered, one dead, two seriously wounded, and the remaining six mostly nursing minor injuries.
They glanced around with faces where unease lingered, startling at every little sound.
It wasn’t healthy tension—it was clear fear.
The Eugene from the Kaemun subjugation wouldn’t have understood why the mercenaries were acting like that, but now he knew the reason well.
‘They’ve only fought roamers. They figured dungeon monsters would be the same.’
Unlike the outside world, demonic energy flowed through the demon realm.
As a result, monsters in the demon realm grew faster than roamers, and were stronger and more ferocious.
It was common for mercenaries used to roamers to get caught off-guard on their first trip into the demon realm.
Maverick’s bunch seemed to be facing demon realm monsters for the first time, and they were clueless about the dungeon’s uniquely claustrophobic environment too.
‘Things would’ve been much better with Galpredic here.’
Galpredic had been right in predicting that decent mercenaries in the area would be in Maren, leaving Tiwin lands with only the riffraff.
Moreover, during the Kaemun subjugation, he’d led the mercenaries—including half of them riffraff—with strong command.
Eugene, reminded anew of what an outstanding knight Galpredic had been, focused his heightened senses deeper into the dungeon.
‘A goblin pack about three hundred meters ahead. They’re practically running toward the screams. The thick blood scent means… there’s a mid-tier with them.’
Checking the map from the Kaemun subjugation for the terrain and passages between them and the goblins, Eugene spoke to the resting mercenaries.
“We’ll scout ahead while the monster breakdown finishes. You, you, and you. Follow me.”
Eugene pointed out three from Maverick’s group who were relatively unscathed.
“Ah! Me too…….”
Brin tried to volunteer, but Partek blocked him and shook his head.
‘Lord Eugene has his reasons. Just rest.’
Seeing Partek’s expression conveying as much, Brin quietly lowered his hand.
The three mercenaries Eugene had singled out rose unsteadily.
Their faces plainly showed they didn’t want to go, but recalling Eugene’s prowess in the previous fight, they said nothing and stood before him.
That was when Maverick stepped forward slyly.
“I’ll come too. What if a mid- or high-tier shows up?”
“…….”
Eugene found Maverick utterly pathetic for not even knowing a knight had to stay with the main group at all costs.
“Do what you want.”
But Eugene nodded soon after.
* * *
‘That dogshit bastard. Daring to humiliate me?’
Maverick glared at Eugene’s back as he walked ahead, battle axe slung over his back, torch and shortsword in each hand.
He’d been arrogant from the moment they met, with nothing likable about him.
He didn’t like that the local lord, Kamara Tiwin, was favorable toward him, or that he subtly rated him higher than Maverick.
‘All he’s good for is killing monsters.’
Entertaining such thoughts, Maverick scanned ahead.
The sparse glow grass gave way entirely to pitch-black terrain.
‘Perfect. Lady Luck’s on my side. Heh heh.’
Maverick licked his lips.
He hadn’t gotten a chance during the fight, but now he was heading off to scout alone.
The ones he’d picked were the strongest in Maverick’s crew too.
‘God’s with me again.’
God loved strong knights and granted them fortune. This was proof God favored him, Maverick believed.
‘Stab through the armor gaps from behind—what’re you gonna do then? The more nobly born and arrogant they are, the more pig-like they squeal when they die.’
The previous owner of the full chain mail he wore now had been exactly that.
The memory of that knight wailing that his relatives would pay ransom if spared made Maverick thrill.
Imagining that pretty-boy bitch groveling like a dog for his life only excited him more.
‘Where to stick it?’
Maverick eyed Eugene’s back, picking his target spot.
They soon reached the glow grass-free zone, and one of the mercenaries walking beside Eugene glanced back.
At Maverick’s subtle nod, the mercenary hurled his torch far away.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Before Eugene could finish, Maverick charged like a bull, thrusting his rondel dagger under Eugene’s armpit from behind.
Plate armor boasted invincible defense, but the joints were linked with chain, not solid plates.
And the rondel dagger, needle-sharp at the tip, was made precisely to pierce chain mail’s tight weave.
Crunch!
Feeling the dagger tip penetrate the chain mail gap, Maverick slammed into Eugene.
The two burly knights in metal armor tangled with a clamor and flew off.
From the impact, Eugene flailed his limbs, and a nearby mercenary took a kick, dropping his torch far away.
“Light! Get a torch! Kill this bastard!”
Maverick shrieked, stabbing madly with the rondel dagger wedged under the armpit.
Another mercenary hammered Eugene’s legs repeatedly with his mace.
Boom! Boom!
But plate armor wasn’t called the ultimate protection for nothing.
No matter how many times struck with the mace, it didn’t dent—not even a scratch.
“F-Fuck!”
“Aim for the joints, you dumb shit! Fuck!”
Maverick was getting desperate too.
The rondel dagger had pierced the chain mail gap for sure. He should feel it sinking into flesh, but it still felt like stabbing something hard.
‘Is this guy wearing inner armor too?’
As he frantically tried to check under the armpit, the dropped torches suddenly winked out one by one.
No mercenary could guess the water spirit had extinguished them.
“……!”
Darkness swallowed everything.
Having staged it in a glow grass-free zone on purpose, it was perfect pitch-black.
“Light! Light the fires! Wh-What!?”
Maverick panicked amid the eerie sensation, yelling.
He couldn’t see in the inky black, but his body felt like it was floating in midair.
‘No way?’
He tensed his limbs desperately, but his thought didn’t finish.
Bam!
“Gahk!”
Maverick smashed into the wall and dropped to the floor.
His head spun in the already sightless chaos. Bones cracked in several places, his whole body throbbing.
“Argh!”
A gut-wrenching scream tore through the darkness into Maverick’s ears.
“Wh-What?”
Thinking maybe a monster appeared, Maverick struggled up and drew his longsword.
But his left hand was useless, broken when flung against the wall.
“Keeeek!”
Another scream echoed from the dark.
And that wasn’t the end.
“Sp-Spare me! Sp—Gurk!”
The last mercenary’s plea from the blackness cut off abruptly.
Whoosh.
A wind from deeper in the dungeon brushed over Maverick.
Hair-raising chill swept him as silence seeped into the sightless void.
“Hah! Hngh!”
Panting raggedly, Maverick whipped his head around.
Only suffocating darkness everywhere—no sense of direction.
“Urk!”
The primal human fear of the dark began eroding Maverick bit by bit.
“Come out! Come out, you fucker! Shit!”
Swish! Whoosh!
Maverick swung his longsword wildly with one hand like a madman.
The blade slashed empty air until it hit a wall, sparks flying, staggering him from recoil—but he kept dancing his deadly blade.
“Come out! Get out here! You…….”
Then, in the darkness, crimson eyes suddenly gleamed.
Maverick instinctively thrust at them.
Clang!
Monstrous force flung the longsword aside.
“Guhk!”
A brutal grip seized Maverick’s throat, hoisting him up. With armor, he exceeded a hundred kilograms, yet dangled helpless in the air.
“Kek! Gek!”
Breath failing, drool spilled from Maverick’s mouth. He kicked frantically with all his might, but his foe didn’t budge.
In his blurring vision, only those blazing red eyes melted the darkness.
“You said you’d kill me……?”
“Gek! Grk!”
“You? A worm like you?”
“Karrk…….”
Snap! Crack!
In overwhelming terror, as Maverick’s mind faded, his chain mail tore savagely from head to shoulders.
The red eyes drew ever closer.
At last, a deep, gloomy voice rang in his ears like tinnitus.
“I was going to kill you right away, but hold on to that filthy life a bit longer.”
Crunch!
Something razor-sharp sank deep into Maverick’s thick nape.
(To be continued)