98. Let's Kill Woohyo. Woohyo Is My Enemy!
98. Let's Kill Woohyo. Woohyo Is My Enemy!
The subjugation inside the cave went so smoothly it was boring enough to make me yawn.
The undead prowling the cave would swarm the moment they sensed my presence. Then, once they recognized me, they'd screech "U-hyoo" and get sliced up. Rinse and repeat.
After that happened about three times, Jang followed along behind me, clucking his tongue as I sliced off the corpses' noses and ears for trophies.
"To be treated as a mere Foreign Worker with an ability like this... those Empire bastards truly have no eye for talent."
"To be honest, I never imagined it'd be this effective. If I'd known sooner, I would've specialized in hunting undead."
It was inevitable I'd notice it late.
Back when I was working as a porter, I mostly observed the situation from the rear. The only time I directly confronted the undead was when I got captured by the Death Knight.
I did encounter undead forces right after starting my adventurer activities, but those were beings beyond the norm, like Gorgon Zola and War's Red Knight. It wasn't exactly easy to gauge my ability properly under those conditions.
"Still, it doesn't work on individuals with egos... so it'd be a stretch to say I've risen to the level of a Hero with just this."
"You lack self-assurance, young man. Are you aware that excessive humility can actually be harmful?"
"Haha... I've seen far too many people greater than me die. It's hard to feel confident."
After all, I've seen close to fifty Heroes who died or got corrupted. How could this be enough to give me confidence?
Things are going smoothly for now, but this world is a merciless dark fantasy.
Since even a slight lapse in vigilance can lead straight to death, I couldn't easily loosen my grip on the tension in this darkness.
-Clunk.
Yeah. I'm starting to see signs of that right now.
An eerie sound began echoing from the far end of the cave.
From the noise, like the joints of old armor grinding against each other, I realized that an enemy on a completely different level from any undead I'd encountered so far had appeared before me.
"...Old man, stay behind me."
Eyes glinting in the darkness.
And an ominous aura rising from the sword in its hand.
"The ene... the enemy is..."
That alone was threatening, but what I had to pay even more attention to was that what came out of its mouth was unmistakably a language comprehensible to humans.
"Enemy... eliminated. Our... mortal foe..."
This wasn't all that surprising. Not every undead is some mindless cannibal.
Even the Four Horsemen I'd met were beings who acted with clear purpose and will.
The reason was easy to understand. I just had to recall what I'd heard when I faced the Death Knight back then.
'For an undead with an ego like mine to be created requires a powerful lingering attachment to life. A yearning stronger than the survival instinct inherent in all living things!'
A survival instinct that all humans inevitably possess, and a yearning even stronger than that.
The incomplete rationality that awakens from such lingering attachments.
An undead born with an ego like that inevitably grows into an individual with greater power, having awakened to emotion and a sense of purpose.
"...I'm not your enemy. Couldn't you just quietly let me pass?"
If they can communicate, I'd rather avoid a fight if possible.
All the undead on this mountain were technically targets for subjugation, but I wasn't confident in fighting a powerful individual yet.
"Uh... U-hyo?"
As I stood there in a passive standoff, the undead bastard tilted its head while looking at me.
That reaction was no different from the other undead I'd met so far. But it only lasted a moment.
"U-hyo, U-hyoooooo!"
The shout erupting from its mouth grew louder. From that point, the aura flowing from its sword intensified even more violently.
The blood-like currents surging from its empty eyes even flowed fiercely like tears in response to that emotion.
As if my power was acting like poison specifically for this one individual.
"I've finally found you. The mortal foe who killed me, the mortal foe who killed me and my comrades stands before meeeee~!!!!"
"Wait, what do you mean mortal foe—"
"Don't play dumb! If this isn't a mortal foe who remains this vividly in my memory, then what is it!"
...God damn it. It seemed my memory-imprinting power had overwritten the target of its revenge.
With things having come to this, avoiding a fight was effectively impossible.
I gritted my teeth and raised my spear shaft. The undead also raised its mana-imbued sword and began to roar.
"Die, U-hyoooo! Die, my mortal enemeeee!!"
"Fuck, my name isn't U-hyo, it's U-hyo-seo—"
-BOOM!!!
My yelling got cut short.
Right after a thunderous sound erupted from the spear shaft I'd hastily raised, the undead bastard followed up and began swinging its sword at me.
-BOOM, BOOM!
The wildly slashing sword repeatedly clashed with my spear shaft.
Pushed back by a force strong enough to send sparks flying, my body was forced to retreat a step or two from the spot.
Shit. This bastard's already a corpse—why the hell is it so strong?
"U-hyoooooo...! I will make you pay dearly for killing meeee!!"
But what hit me even harder was the torrent of emotion I never expected a corpse to exhibit.
The mana it drew into the sword was threatening, but focusing solely on evasion wasn't an option either.
It wasn't just the speed. The movements themselves were coming from unpredictable directions.
-Whoosh! Clang!
Abnormally staggering footsteps.
The sword swung by its desperate charge, precarious stance and all, was still being brandished with enough force to carve into my body without losing any power.
In a hurry, I tried to focus my defense by drawing mana into my armor. But without Philoi, my combat power was less than half of what it usually was.
"Kraaaah! Aaaaaaaaargh!"
As if the mere sight of me being pushed back stimulated it, the undead bastard began screaming as if it would vomit blood.
If this turned into a one-sided defensive battle, my stamina would bottom out and my body would get carved to pieces.
-Clang!
No choice. It's not exactly ready for real combat yet, but I'll be done for if this keeps up.
I retreated as far as possible from the bastard and immediately exerted my will to draw even more mana from the armor.
According to Airi, the armor's limiter had already been released.
As long as I had the will to use it, I should be able to exert the same output as before even without Marilyn's performance.
-Creeeak!
But that certainty was cut short in an instant.
Just as I was about to swing my spear, my body froze in place, as if caught on a wall.
In the very moment I tried to transition into action, the armor's will grew stronger and put a brake on my movements.
"Hey! Hey! What the hell are you doing!"
-Annoying.
"You son of a—!!"
This lazy fucker has times when it stubbornly interferes and times when it doesn't.
But by the time I realized the blunder, it was already too late.
Soon, the bastard's sword had reached right in front of me, rushing in with the momentum to cleave my head in two.
Shit. Is this the end?
-Clang!!!
Right after that, sparks erupted from the staff swung by a sudden interloper.
As the undead bastard recoiled and staggered back from the force, the old man standing before me began leveling his staff at it.
"Goodness. An old man who can't even age properly taking out his anger on a young man with many days left to live... how unsightly."
Jang Cleo.
The one who brought me here, like a master to me.
"You, you baaastard...! How dare you interfere with my revengeee...!"
"That armor... I remember it."
Jang casually tossed out a remark toward the provoked undead that was about to charge.
At that, the undead bastard stopped for a moment and began listening intently to what Jang was saying.
"Were you a soldier from the enemy nation that fought against my homeland?"
The trembling of its body alongside that must have been a reaction because it couldn't take those words lightly.
"Enemy of my homeland...? You... don't tell me you are..."
"Indeed. I am a soldier of Britannia, your enemy nation. Though at that time, I was merely a low-ranking soldier."
"Bri, ta..."
"However... why is a soldier whose breath ceased in a war half a century ago still wandering the spirit world? Your homeland should be on a frontier far from here."
"U-urgh...!!"
The undead clutched its head and cried out in pain.
Considering that corpses don't possess pain receptors in the first place, its current reaction was deeply unnatural.
"Britannia, my mortal enemeee...!"
"Yes, that's how it was in that era. The higher-ups started it, and the subordinates ended up shouldering all the grudges, hating people they'd never even met..."
Eventually, the moment its hatred shifted from me to him.
Nevertheless, Jang maintained a composed attitude, merely straightening his staff toward it.
"But, dead one. This is the Age of Calamity now, not the Age of War. It's a time when humans shouldn't be fighting other humans, but joining forces to face the calamities. Why are you pointing your sword at the living?"
"I don't... care about any of that!"
-Shiiing!
Its body, which had stopped, moved again. Mana gathered in its vacant eyes before beginning to spread.
"I just want to kill. All of the bastards who made me this way, all of themmm!"
And with that, the redly glowing sword felt even more powerful than when it had been used against me.
"So die... atone to my homeland with your blood!!"
Even as such a sword strike was aimed right before my eyes, Jang paid it no mind. He merely straightened the staff in his hand.
The mana dwelling in his staff was far less than that of the one before him, yet he performed the action with immense calmness and composure.
"...Dead one, still trapped by the past even though the times have changed."
Maintaining that unwavering attitude, he simply swung the staff in his hand.
-Shik!
The sound produced at the end was neither that of a blunt weapon striking flesh, nor the explosive roar of gathered mana bursting forth.
As if cutting paper with a very thin blade.
While that quiet sound alone filled the space, the man who had already passed by the side of the undead charging at him retrieved his staff and spoke in a low voice.
"I will remember you. So please lay down your sword. May you rest in peace."
-Riiip!
In an instant, the sound of flesh splitting echoed out.
Following that, the undead's body was bisected on the spot and slumped limply to the floor.
A cold corpse without even a trace of post-mortem rigor. But what caught my eye even more was the fact that the sword in its hand was also split in half.
To exhibit sharpness capable of splitting a sword with a staff... and to swing it at a speed that left afterimages...
Was that truly a level achievable by a human with no special privileges, like a Hero?
"Aigo, my joints. It's not easy to move at my age, you see."
But the one who performed such a feat simply complained about his stiff body.
I approached him and immediately asked in an excited voice.
"...Old man. What was that just now?"
"That is the level you must reach from now on."
An answer as if it were nothing special.
But I felt my heart swell at his words.
"To become a Hero, shouldn't you be able to transcend human limits, at least in the moment of battle?"
A skill comparable to the level of a Hero, just like what he'd shown before.
Because I felt, in his composed demeanor, the certainty that I would soon be able to achieve it with my own hands.
****
Jang Cleo.
I wanted to avoid creating a situation where he had to step up as much as possible.
Partly out of respect for the elderly, but also because it would be a problem if the person who'd come all this way to oversee my training collapsed.
"Now then. We've arrived at a suitable place."
The place we arrived at for training, following him, was a location with a completely different atmosphere from anywhere we'd passed through so far.
The blue light illuminating the surroundings even without a lantern emanated from the outer walls of the cave itself.
"A mysterious place. Where is this?"
"If I had to give it a name... I'd call it a Dragon Vein."
"...Dragon Vein?"
"This mountain is where a dragon's bones are buried, you see. It's a place where the residual power of the dragon spread through the surroundings and pooled. Calling it a Dragon Vein seems fitting, doesn't it?"
A place where the power left by a dragon gathers unusually densely. Hence, Dragon Vein.
An intuitive and fitting name.
"The reason I chose this place for your training is something I'll teach you later. For now, let's first check a few prerequisites."
So saying, Jang perched himself on a nearby rocky ledge and then gave me instructions, pointing his staff at me.
"Now then, young man. Can you try creating a Circle right here?"
"Huh? A Circle..."
"Have you never used one before?"
"No, I have. When my equipment is in good shape."
If I couldn't even do that much, would I have been able to run around taking down corrupted Heroes?
Still, a Circle is something you can form by gathering mana into a ring shape in one part of the body once your mana control ability reaches a certain level.
Naturally, someone not adept at using mana couldn't even attempt it. So for me, who needed Philoi's help, it was something I could never even dream of.
"Can't you at least attempt it? Try it as you do when you borrow that child's help to generate a Circle."
"Yes, well. I'll give it a shot."
There must be a reason he's having me do it. Thinking that, I drew in the armor's mana again and immediately focused the power into my hand.
Of course, I didn't expect anything. Even when I worked as a Hero Hunter, the one solely responsible for generating the Circle was Philoi, not me.
So I thought that even recalling how I managed Philoi couldn't possibly make it work properly. But...
-Whiiine.
Overturning my expectations, a ring-shaped haze formed around my wrist.
This meant that a mass of physical force, drawn by my will, was densely concentrated in the form of a ring at this very moment.
"...It worked."
Why the hell did it work?
Until recently, it was only possible when I borrowed the power of both the armor and the spear. Now I can generate a Circle just by wearing the armor?
"Hoho. I expected it to some extent, but I see someone has indeed tampered with it."
But Jang, upon seeing it, was looking at the Circle formed on my hand with serious eyes, as if he'd immediately understood.
Burning with curiosity, I quickly turned to him and asked back.
"Old man, do you know something about this?"
"Indeed. This confirms for sure that you are loved by her."
"Loved?"
Loved? What does he mean by that?
As I stared at him with bewildered eyes, he soon gave me a clearer answer to my question.
"Tasian Failoy. I'm telling you that you are loved by the young lady I introduced to you."
"...Excuse me?"
Even with the explanation, it was a statement I understood even less.
Love? Tasian... loves me?
Why on earth did he reach that conclusion just from me creating a single Circle?