Chapter 6
Chapter 6
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: First Blood
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#6.
“Shield soldiers!”
At the knight’s shout, the soldiers stepped forward and raised their shields.
Thud thud thud—!
A pack of white wolf-shaped monsters, snowuls, crashed into the shields.
“Hold the line!”
Blocking the charge of nearly a hundred massive wolves with shields was no easy task.
Yet the soldiers of the Massive Guardians held their formation without faltering.
“Spears, thrust!”
At the next command, the shields parted, and spears shot out from the gaps.
Shink—!
The razor-sharp spear tips pierced the snowuls’ throats precisely.
The pristine white ground was instantly stained with steaming hot blood.
With the front line broken, it was time to begin the hunt.
“Slaughter them all!”
Swords were drawn, and the soldiers charged at the beasts.
‘Fuck this!’
Seo Woo-jin cursed under his breath as he ran amid the soldiers.
It was something he never would have done alone.
Charging at wolves bigger than himself with just a single sword?
But right now, he had no choice in the matter.
It was like being swept up in the crowd at a subway station after the Yeouido fireworks festival.
He was caught in the soldiers’ momentum and forced to rush forward….
“Excessive tension won’t help in battle.”
Eileen’s cool voice urged him on.
But words like that weren’t helping at all right now.
“If I don’t stay tense now, am I even human?!”
Seo Woo-jin yelled in desperation.
He felt like he’d go mad if he didn’t let it out like that.
Grrrrr—!
Just then, a snowul appeared before Seo Woo-jin, blocking his path.
It must have been one the soldiers charging ahead had missed.
Its once-pure white fur was dyed red from sword cuts, but to Seo Woo-jin, it looked even more terrifying.
“Grip your sword.”
As Seo Woo-jin froze, Eileen began advising from beside him.
The soldiers naturally flowed around the two, continuing their assault.
They knew this was the hero’s first battle.
The fact that they could maintain awareness of their surroundings amid the frenzy of combat showed just how elite they were.
“Huff— huff—!”
Meanwhile, Seo Woo-jin was so tense he could barely breathe.
Compared to Drakeas, it had neither the overwhelming presence nor the killing intent of a true threat.
But to Seo Woo-jin, it was a monster all the same—one that could end his life at any moment!
Kraaaah—!
Did it smell his fear?
The snowul, which had been wary of Eileen, bared its fangs and leaped at Seo Woo-jin.
“Hup!”
Seo Woo-jin threw himself sideways at the same time, but his tension made it impossible to dodge completely.
Riiip—!
A long gash opened on his left arm.
Fortunately, the injured snowul moved sluggishly, so it didn’t turn into a serious wound.
Just a bit of torn skin.
The burning pain in his arm snapped Seo Woo-jin back to his senses.
“You bastard!”
The fear vanished in an instant.
And in its place surged pure rage.
Realizing the beast wasn’t as threatening as he’d thought, Seo Woo-jin spun around and swung his sword.
Thwack—!
“Grip your sword properly.”
Unfortunately, his blade didn’t connect properly.
Having never received any real sword training, he’d struck the snowul’s head with the flat of the blade instead of the edge.
“Stay calm. Clear your head.”
Thanks to Eileen’s chilling tone, Seo Woo-jin gradually regained his composure.
That was when he realized the massive, terrifying snowul was really just the size of a large dog.
“Damn it.”
Even if it was a monster, his face flushed at the thought of being so scared of something like that.
‘Pathetic. So damn pathetic.’
To show such an ugly side of himself.
‘The edge, not the flat!’
It was so easy to do in movies or anime, but in reality, his body wouldn’t obey his mind.
He’d thought he could at least manage this much.
The snowul staggered back slightly from the impact, then began probing for an opening in Seo Woo-jin’s guard.
‘Think of it as an injured animal.’
Though classified as a monster, snowuls were close to wild beasts.
They were deemed dangerous due to their pack behavior, but a lone one separated from the group wasn’t much of a threat.
Especially one already wounded by a sword.
Sure, a wounded beast could be dangerous, but Seo Woo-jin had a weapon too.
‘Just one solid hit!’
He didn’t need to bisect it in one go.
A single thrust to the throat would kill it.
They stood still, waiting for an opening.
Then the wind blew, kicking up snow from the ground into the air.
‘Now!’
Seo Woo-jin’s sword thrust forward.
The tip wobbled, and the speed was slow, but
Pffuk—!
It was enough to pierce the throat of the charging snowul.
The unfamiliar sensation at his fingertips made the hairs on Seo Woo-jin’s body stand on end.
And then….
As the snowul with a hole in its throat collapsed dead, Seo Woo-jin felt something welling up inside him.
‘This is…?’
He knew instinctively.
This was the sensation of gaining experience points.
Killing just one snowul didn’t bring much change, but if he kept this up and took down a few more?
‘I can level up.’
He had no idea how many more he needed to kill.
Ten? A hundred?
Or maybe just one more.
But one thing was certain: continuing the hunt like this would lead to a level up.
“Not bad.”
Eileen approached from behind, where she’d been watching the fight.
“Ah, thank you.”
From her perspective, it must have been a pitiful display that would make anyone sigh.
Yet she didn’t hold back her praise.
For someone picking up a sword for the first time to pierce a monster’s throat in one strike? It deserved commendation.
Even if the beginning had been utterly cringe-worthy.
“Feeling less tense now?”
His trembling hands had steadied, and his ragged breathing had calmed.
“Seems like it.”
It was his first time killing something living.
He’d expected to be shocked by the fact.
But was it the heat of battle?
Or the fear of death?
It felt far less impactful than he’d imagined.
Seo Woo-jin took a deep breath and looked down.
He saw the bloodstained sword and the hand gripping it.
Normally, he’d freak out, but his astonishing calm felt strangely out of place.
“Weird.”
“What’s weird?”
Eileen tilted her head at his mutter.
“Oh, nothing much. I just killed a monster, but I don’t feel anything special.”
“What’s weird about that?”
Seo Woo-jin chuckled at Eileen’s utterly matter-of-fact response.
He felt it often, but the people of this world were just too different from him.
‘Guess it’s the environment they grew up in.’
Humans were animals of adaptation, after all.
A world with real monsters couldn’t be the same as one without.
If Seo Woo-jin had grown up here, he’d probably think just like Eileen.
‘That has to change from now on.’
To get stronger.
To survive.
“The battle isn’t over yet.”
Sensing that Seo Woo-jin had calmed down, Eileen began urging him on.
He’d only hunted one monster so far.
Hundreds more remained, locked in fierce combat with the soldiers.
He needed to join them as soon as possible.
“Shall we?”
Seo Woo-jin nodded.
He wasn’t confident yet, but the fear had largely faded.
And….
‘I want to feel it again.’
That sensation of something filling up inside him.
Even without reaching level 2 yet, it gave him a profound sense of fulfillment.
‘Am I getting addicted to this?’
With a silly thought in his mind, he headed back to the battlefield with Eileen.
Where blood and screams filled the air….
* * *
“He hasn’t leveled up yet, has he.”
“It seems not.”
Testron replied politely to Van Slane’s question.
The two observed Seo Woo-jin from a distance.
“A hero who levels up is said to be enveloped in bright light.”
“That’s what the records say. Reports confirm the same phenomenon with growing heroes in other kingdoms.”
Though no one knew how it worked, of course.
“Looks like one snowul isn’t nearly enough.”
Van Slane didn’t miss a single one of Seo Woo-jin’s movements.
His steps, the direction of his hands, his gaze.
It was just a fight against a mere snowul, but Seo Woo-jin was holding his own, more or less.
But that wasn’t what Van Slane wanted to see.
‘Was it really just coincidence?’
He vividly recalled the moment Drakeas had frozen in fear of Seo Woo-jin.
He didn’t know why, but if even Drakeas had reacted that way, he’d thought snowuls would too….
The snowul had judged Seo Woo-jin as weaker prey and simply charged ferociously.
‘No, it wasn’t an illusion.’
A master of his caliber wouldn’t misjudge.
Which meant that day, Drakeas had truly sensed something from Seo Woo-jin.
“I wonder what it is.”
The difference between Drakeas and the snowul.
Though both were monsters under the Demon King’s command, there were disparities among them.
It wasn’t just a matter of strength.
It was a difference in realm.
Naturally, Drakeas’s realm far surpassed that of a snowul.
And that was likely what allowed it to sense something in Seo Woo-jin—or not.
“I’ll have to investigate properly once the subjugation ends.”
Van Slane smiled as he gazed at the bright light bursting in the distance.