Chapter 9
Chapter 9
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 9
Chapter Title: Death Knight (1)
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Federback stared quietly beyond the abyss where the ruins lay sealed.
In the pale light scattered by mushroom spores, hazy silhouettes shifted.
Clack clack clack clack clack clack clack...
A horde of centipedes with repulsive forms revealed themselves.
Compared to the ones he'd seen before regressing, these looked almost cute and dainty, but unfortunately, no one remained to share his appreciation.
Swish—
Federback drew his sword.
The sharp blade tip aimed toward the centipede horde.
Long, massive centipedes tangled like clumps of black iron chains.
Screee— scree scree— ga scree scree scree—
Unpleasant dissonant sounds scraped the ground as they approached.
Each one large enough to easily wrap around and crush an adult man.
And behind them, a colossal centipede coiled up—so enormous it might be mistaken for a dragon.
That had to be the Centipede Queen.
"Get out of my way."
Federback swung his sword, severing one centipede's head.
The rightful heir to this dungeon had returned.
The illegal squatters had to obey the landlord's eviction order.
Crack—! Splatter! Crunch!
Soon, three or four more centipedes toppled in succession.
Federback wielded his sword without hesitation.
He had to surpass these vile things to claim his ancestor's legacy.
Tss tss tss tss...
Pale mana unique to a 2nd Circle user reinforced his muscles throughout his body.
Federback recalled the two essential survival principles he'd honed rolling through countless battlefields.
1. Never get surrounded.
2. Never forget rule 1.
A bit simplistic for a longevity secret... but the know-how of great establishments was always straightforward.
Federback reversed his grip on the sword and swung.
The sharp blade shattered the centipedes' shells and severed deep flesh.
Venomous fluids splashed onto his face and boiled up, but.
"......"
Federback paid it no mind.
A centipede's weak point was the gap between its head and the carapace linking to the nape.
The spot that lifted when molting was imminent.
Just prod it lightly with the sword tip, and it would convulse like a squid leg on a hot grill, foaming at the mouth.
Federback vaulted over their jaws and legs, relentlessly thrusting into their napes.
...Stab! ...Stab! ...Stab! ...Stab! ...Stab! ...Stab! ...Stab!
The more Federback rampaged, the fiercer the centipedes' frenzy grew.
Those closing in swung sharp jaws and spat venom.
Federback smacked away every incoming venom droplet with the flat of his blade.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Moss-covered ruins soaked in blood and poison.
Federback didn't flinch as flesh touched by centipede fluids swelled and burst.
'As long as it doesn't get in my eyes.'
Everywhere else just hurt—it didn't hinder combat.
For a normal person, one drop on the skin would cause screams and days of agony from the deadly poison, but Federback bathed in it without shrinking back.
His sword mechanically stabbed and slew at their napes.
Squelch—!
The blood-soaked blade bored a hole in a massive centipede's nape.
Federback lifted his head with an emotionless expression.
Centipede corpses already piled like a small mountain.
Beyond the venomous blood cascading like a waterfall.
[O—ooooooo......]
An especially gigantic centipede wriggled downward.
The Centipede Queen.
Its bulk could fool anyone into mistaking it for a dragon.
It hurled itself at Federback.
Swoosh!
The Centipede Queen's razor-sharp jaws surged forward.
Federback ducked low to evade, regripped his sword forward, and raked the Queen's jaws.
Kagagagagak!
Purple blood erupted like a waterfall.
The Centipede Queen thrashed in agony.
Federback seized its antennae and climbed straight to the nape.
Then drove down with his full weight on the blade.
Kwa—ak!
The sword tip, cloaked in pale aura, sank halfway into the nape.
[Kieeeek!?]
The Queen sensed crisis and shrieked.
Yet Federback held fast, gripping the sword tight.
Then.
Kwa—ang!
He smashed his forehead into the hilt.
The blade, locked firm by both hands, plunged deeper into the nape.
Federback hammered the hilt with headbutts relentlessly.
...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang! ...Bang!
His forehead skin tore, blood spurted, white skull exposed.
Yet Federback kept his eyes wide, delivering headbutts.
Kwa—jik!
The blade, hammered deeper by his forehead, finally pierced from nape through to throat.
[Kii—i......]
Human madness triumphed.
The tenacious Centipede Queen slammed its head lifelessly to the ground.
But Federback didn't stop, shoving the sword even deeper.
Until his upper body burrowed into the sword gash and poked out the far hole.
"......Hoo."
Federback emerged from the Queen's nape through its throat.
By then, the Queen was thoroughly dead.
Drip— drip— drip—
In Federback's hand gleamed the pearl extracted from the Queen's throat.
This legendary inner core, nestled between centipede jaw and throat, bestowed vast mana upon ingestion.
Normally, its deadly poison demanded lengthy detoxification first.
Gulp—
Federback swallowed it raw.
'Anyway, a Meursault body coursing with Awakening Blood won't rupture easily. The more I move, the faster the absorption. My gut will ache a few days...'
Soon, the minion centipedes scattered every which way.
Federback intuited the grueling centipede battle was over.
But.
'Now the real ordeal begins.'
The centipede ranks were mere initiation rites.
This dungeon's true sentinels awaited only after breaching their net.
...Sure enough.
'Coming.'
Federback detected a noise starting the moment all centipede life signs vanished.
Clank— clank— clank—
...Rusted armor grinding together.
...Worn military boots trudging through muck.
...Blood-and-human-fat-smeared blades droning low.
Beings like nightmares sculpted into human form drew near.
Federback muttered.
"Death Knight."
Also called 'Knight of Death' or 'Necro Knight.'
Undead forged from knights who'd ascended to sublime heights in body and mind while alive.
Their peril incomparable to zombie soldiers or skeleton rabble.
Clank— clank— clank—
Knights clad in black plate and ebony helms advanced this way.
Rusted bladesmen feeling neither terror nor duty.
They closed in slowly, inexorably, from the gloom.
'......No breath sounds? Then this is the lot.'
Rusted armor and waterlogged boot noises attested their eerie presence.
Flash—
One Death Knight spewed crimson gore-light from its helm's eye slits.
Ordinary folk went mad just glimpsing the will-o'-wisps from those sockets.
Federback readied his sword.
"......You were once Meursault kin too."
What resolve prompted ancestors to station them as dungeon wardens?
Like scholars bequeathing corpses to halls of learning on deathbeds, perhaps some willed their remains to fertilize descendants' growth?
Details unknowable, of course.
"Now I'll see you as mere obstacles."
Federback shed sentiment.
Opponents: Death Knights.
Those rusted black armors crammed solely with hatred for the living.
Tss tss tss tss tss...
Dozens of Death Knights exhaled black mana.
Dark heat hazes warped vision.
In the abyss, only blood-red will-o'-wisps from Death Knight eyes drifted.
'Wonder their caliber.'
Federback stroked his chin.
Pre-regression, another squad handled them.
He'd been occupied slaying the Centipede Queen.
'Time to gauge their rank in the infernal lineage.'
Federback opened with a casual probe against the Death Knights.
Pa—at—
Death Knights charged Federback.
Dozens of corpses incarnating death passed sentence upon him.
Execution.
Even in death, the tomb-guarding Meursaults deemed Federback a desecrator.
Splash—ak!
Federback severed a vine with his sword.
Clear sap crossing the floor halted the Death Knights' steps abruptly.
Federback smiled faintly.
"As expected. The restless dead shrink from rivers."
Undead shunned flowing water.
As if death birthed the instinct.
Kwa—duk!
Federback rammed his blade into the lead Death Knight's neck.
[......!]
Ghost fire from its helm snuffed out.
The underworld's aegis lifted.
Thud— clatter!
Rusted black armor crumpled limply.
Other Death Knights fanned left and right.
Swaaaa—
Black aura blade streaked from a sword tip.
Federback rolled aside on the ground.
'Sluggish motions. Souls seem faded.'
Two cases.
The base knight's flesh mediocre in life, or elite knight long dead and rotten through.
Either way, flesh dictated agility.
'Not my concern.'
Weaker foes benefited him.
Federback recalled myriad Death Knights battled pre-regression.
Some top-tiers clung to demon king legion commands for decades.
Even that one crossed to oblivion on Federback's blade.
"Let alone these low-tier Death Knights."
Time-consuming, but no defeat in sight.
Soleil or Cardina might've met grisly ends.
"Let's wrap this quick and part ways."
Irrelevant to Federback.