The Third Tutorial (8)
The knights were all dead, but I didn't think there would be any real danger left. Kucharak was already dead, and I'd killed every last one of those goblin shamans too. After going this far, if there were still similar monsters lurking around, it would basically be telling me not to clear it. So I wandered around boldly.
Slash.
I dodged the orc's fist with a quick step and sliced off its right arm. While the one-armed bastard was still rolling its eyes in shock, I slashed its ankle to keep it from running and signaled to Kwon Soyeon. Confirming my signal, she gripped her spear tightly, ran over, and drove it straight into the orc's neck as it wept in agony.
Thud!
She must have stabbed it in the wrong spot because the orc's blood gushed out like a fountain. But Kwon Soyeon didn't seem to care at all. She kept stabbing until the orc was completely dead. Thanks to that, the white frills on her maid outfit were soaked red. Still, after several hunts, the white parts were already stained red enough that it didn't mean much anymore.
“You got all 300 points?”
“Yeah! All done.”
She had been sulking ever since I told her I wouldn't give her any points. But now that she'd gathered all the points she wanted, her voice brightened up as if her mood had improved.
“Then let's go find the others.”
I wasn't sure what the recapture condition was, but since it still wasn't ending, it seemed like we had to kill all the monsters. I could kill them all by myself, but that would take too much time. So I planned to gather as many living people as possible and handle it together.
“I wonder how many are still alive?”
“Who knows? Quite a few, probably?”
Besides the castle, there were plenty of places to hide. There were multiple military facilities besides the main castle where the baron lived, so there were more than enough spots to conceal themselves.
As we wandered around without any particular destination, killing monsters, another familiar goddess statue came into view. Behind it stood a building similar in shape to the one I'd seen in the second tutorial. It was probably a church, just like back then.
“At this point, I'm starting to get attached.”
From the first to the third tutorial, our goddess had appeared without fail. Now I'd probably feel a little disappointed if I didn't see her.
“Is that Lady Aeteria?”
“First time seeing her?”
“Uh… yeah.”
“Well, that makes sense.”
What was so special about seeing that goddess statue? Except for the first tutorial, it hadn't been anything noteworthy. It was just there to remind us that she was the god of the world we'd be going to. Nothing more, nothing less. No need to pay it any special attention.
I left the perfectly intact goddess statue behind and approached the church, slowly turning the doorknob.
Creeeak.
The door opened with a slight noise. Just in case, I opened it and took a step back to observe any reaction.
“Who is it?”
“Is it a person?”
“Not a monster, right?”
They were whispering in what they probably thought was a quiet voice, but it all carried outside. It was clearly human voices—and Korean at that—so I dropped my suspicion and announced my presence in a voice loud enough to avoid drawing monster aggro.
“It's me. Come out.”
“No way, is that Senior Yoon Iseo?”
Recognizing my voice, Song Dayeong burst out of the church in surprise. Five or six more people followed her, but none of them were memorable enough for me to recall their names.
“Is this everyone?”
“Yes. We were running around and somehow ended up gathering here. But…”
Song Dayeong's gaze shifted to Kwon Soyeon, who was standing awkwardly behind me. She narrowed her eyes and blatantly looked her up and down before asking,
“Did you fuck her?”
“W-what are you saying!”
“Then why are you two together? And she's even wearing a maid outfit.”
“This is just because my clothes got dirty…”
Kwon Soyeon couldn't even meet Song Dayeong's sharp, glaring eyes and looked completely flustered. I shook my head. Why not just honestly admit everything? If she didn't want to get caught, she should've acted better. Her terrible acting only made people more suspicious.
“Stop talking nonsense. Did you gather all your points?”
“Someone abandoned me, so I couldn't gather them all.”
“Quit screwing around. How many are left?”
“About 150 points?”
“That won't take long. Gather the others and wait outside.”
“Are you going to search this place too? I already checked. There's nothing here.”
I stared silently at Song Dayeong as she innocently claimed there was nothing. I was testing her, wondering if she'd taken anything first. Her aggrieved reaction seemed genuine.
If she had found something and hidden it, what should I do? I thought about it for a moment. Even if it seemed like trash, I had to take it. I could let bread or points slide, but I couldn't yield on hidden pieces.
The aphrodisiac potion I'd fed Kwon Soyeon—if it hadn't been such a large quantity, I probably wouldn't have bothered feeding it to her for experiments. Either way, I'd carry it around and ask Luniel about it. If she wouldn't tell me, I'd take it to Aeteria and find out exactly what it was.
“Still, better to check just in case.”
I patted the pouting Song Dayeong on the shoulder—her lips were sticking out like a duck's—and entered the church.
Well, what was she going to do if she got upset? She'd act all friendly again once it was time to hunt monsters anyway. More importantly, I needed to see if there was a hidden piece here. I didn't think the aphrodisiac was one. There was probably something better if it existed. But it didn't seem to be here. The church itself was small, so there wasn't anywhere to hide anything. I even tapped the floor just in case, but there was no spot that seemed suspicious.
“Let's go.”
“I told you there's nothing. Why don't you trust people?”
I ignored Song Dayeong's grumbling and took the lead. We didn't have time to thoroughly search everywhere and still kill all the monsters.
“So this is everyone who's still alive.”
Roughly twenty Hero Candidates had survived, and there were slightly fewer soldiers. At the beginning, there had been far more soldiers than candidates, but when counting only those we'd found so far, the soldiers were fewer. Probably because many had fallen to the shaman's curses.
I quietly looked up at the sky. The sky that had turned pitch black had long since returned to normal, but the people affected by the curses hadn't come back. Thinking that this was the kind of thing we'd have to experience countless times from now on made my head hurt.
“But how exactly do we finish this?”
“I don't know. All the guys who were supposed to guide us are dead, so I have no idea how to end it either.”
We'd roughly cleaned up most of the monsters. There might still be some remnants hiding somewhere, so we kept searching while moving around, but since we weren't seeing any, it seemed like it was pretty much over.
“Hey.”
“What is it, Hero Candidate?”
Hmm. He called me a Hero Candidate with his mouth, but I could feel the displeasure in his eyes. For a mere commoner conscript to act like this. The title of Hero Candidate seemed grandiose but ultimately meaningless.
“Go to Baron Recount and tell him the recapture is complete.”
“How can you tell me to go alone when there might still be monsters?”
“I'll assign a few more people to you.”
“...Understood. I'll be back.”
After calling over a few more soldiers to accompany him, he left for the castle without further complaint. I wasn't sure what the exact condition was, but if it wasn't about killing all the monsters, then the only thing left was to bring Baron Recount here.
While waiting for Baron Recount to arrive, we took a short rest. Considering how close we were, he'd probably get here quickly. It was better than wandering around looking for monsters and missing each other.
“But will this be okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“All the knights are dead. From the baron's perspective, he's lost all his assets in the territory. You think he'll just let it go?”
“What can he do if he doesn't let it go?”
Kwon Soyeon voiced her worries with unease, but I thought it would be fine. There was still one knight left, but unless he was on Kyle's level, we had the advantage in numbers. The only thing that felt off was the expressions on those soldiers' faces. They were all smiles now because they were alive, but the way they didn't seem pleased when spoken to made it clear that even Hero Candidates wouldn't be left untouched by the nobles.
With that slight anxiety, we waited for Baron Recount. Before long, he appeared with the remaining knight and attendants.
“Hero Candidate Yoon. Where is Sir Kyle?”
“Unfortunately, he died in battle.”
“...Please wait a moment.”
Baron Recount, who had been silent for a long time after my answer, asked for understanding and whispered something to the knight behind him. After whispering for quite a while, the two seemed to have finished their discussion and approached me again.
“You've worked hard. Once I clean up this matter, I will definitely repay the goddess's grace.”
With those words, Baron Recount led the soldiers toward the castle.
“The ending feels fucking suspicious.”
Both that knight and Baron Recount had been glancing at me while talking at the end. Anyone could tell they were gauging me. But since they ultimately let it slide, there wasn't much I could say. And if he was going to repay the grace, why repay it to the goddess instead of me?
“That is because you all participated in the battlefield as Hero Candidates who serve under the goddess. Hero Candidate Yoon Iseo.”
A familiar voice rang in my ear. When I looked up, the surroundings had already changed into the waiting room.
“Just who the hell measures this bullshit difficulty?”
The moment I saw Luniel, I immediately complained about this absurdly difficult tutorial.
“Didn't you clear it splendidly?”
“Does this look like I cleared it splendidly?”
“Considering this death rate, you cleared it quite splendidly.”
“That was purely because I got lucky.”
“Why do you think it was luck?”
“What?”
In response to my question, Luniel's white eyes flashed as she calmly explained the situation.
“The reason Hero Candidate Yoon Iseo felt it was difficult was because you went to kill the goblin shamans. The goblin shamans were designed not to come down from above the castle in order to maintain their curses. And their curses do not activate unless the knights are all on the verge of death.”
“So you're saying I brought all this suffering on myself?”
If I hadn't gone to kill the goblin shamans, Kucharak and Kyle wouldn't have killed each other, and they would have killed Kucharak without much trouble. Even without me, the two of them had driven Kucharak to the brink of death. If so, everything would have gone smoothly.
“Still, you earned quite a lot of points for all your hard work, didn't you? Be satisfied with that, Hero Candidate Yoon Iseo.”
“Fuck, what about us!”
Just as the story was wrapping up, Im Do-geon suddenly shouted and cut in.
“What the fuck are we supposed to do about those of us who died because that bastard was trolling!”
Looked like he'd died again and filled all three deaths, so he was losing his mind.
“Pick the right time and place to throw a tantrum, you fucker.”
“What?”
When he looked at me, my already bad mood got even worse. I didn't hold back and just threw a punch. Since they'd already proven with their own bodies that beating people like dogs wouldn't cause any problems, I hit him without hesitation.
Thwack!
Crash!
The guy who took a clean hit to the jaw collapsed and couldn't get up.
The tutorial has ended.
A total of 47 Hero Candidates have passed.
You will move to Aeteria after a short rest. Please wait in the plaza.
For a moment, I thought I'd heard wrong. 47 people? Weren't we originally 48? No, I clearly remembered it being 48. The others seemed to have missed it because of the announcement that it was over, but Luniel had definitely said 47. And according to my memory, there had been a total of 48 of us.
Wondering if Luniel had misspoken, I counted the number of people gathered in the plaza. There were currently 47 people in the plaza.
The truck driver was nowhere to be seen.