Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Apprentice Gear and Housing Disputes
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'This is it.'
There were now two new items in my inventory.
One was an ebony staff carved into a blunt rhombus shape at the tip.
The other was a robe dyed a solid black.
As I examined the two items closely, their descriptions appeared before my eyes.
'Perfect.'
I clenched my fist tight after reading the item descriptions.
The stats themselves weren't anything groundbreaking.
They were still firmly in the realm of beginner equipment.
What mattered was how perfectly they compensated for my weaknesses.
'The biggest drawbacks for a novice mage are spell usage limits and recharge speed.'
The staff added a whopping five extra uses to the chronic weakness shared by all mages.
Five might not sound like much, but in a crisis, even a single cast could be priceless.
The robe was the same.
In heated combat, whether you could recharge before the enemy swung first could mean life or death.
These two pieces plugged those exact holes.
They were beginner gear in name and perfect for it.
"Awesome!"
Min Jae-yoon was grinning ear to ear beside me, checking his own inventory just like I had.
He must have scored something great too.
"Get something good?"
"Yeah! A sword and shield. The sword doubles the effect of Minor Heal!"
"Oh, nice."
Minor Heal was a skill you got upon class-changing to Holy Knight.
I had no idea where its healing cap was, but healing itself was rare enough to be valuable.
In a world like this, finding doctors or medicine wasn't easy.
Even as a minor heal, preventing tetanus or infection made it worth its weight in gold.
Doubling that effect? No contest.
"What about the shield? Any extra perks?"
"Nah, the shield's just a shield. But having one at all counts for something!"
Yeah, fair point. I nodded without a word.
A shield's value was immense on its own.
In a fight between someone with a shield and someone without, nine times out of ten, the shielded one wins.
It overwhelms even superior combat experience.
That defensive edge was huge.
Especially now, when we could deliberately boost our physical stats.
"This is way better than I expected. I wasn't hoping for much from beginner gear."
"Same here. This quest is gonna widen the gap between survivors big time."
"And we'll be on the leading side."
Min Jae-yoon and I exchanged grins.
We were just about to pull our new gear from inventory and try it on.
"What the hell is this!?"
"You expect us to live here!?"
Grumbling voices rose from the rescued survivors.
I blinked and headed toward the safe zone to see what was up.
"What's going on?"
People flinched at the sight of me in my black robe.
The shift in atmosphere from earlier had caught them off guard for a second.
But they quickly composed themselves and explained.
"Perfect timing. It's just..."
"So, you're saying you don't like the houses?"
"Yes!"
I let out a hollow chuckle at their complaints.
It wasn't incomprehensible.
Nobody wanted to live in those crumbling medieval peasant huts.
Especially not after having proper homes just yesterday.
Even I wouldn't choose one if I had options.
'But nitpicking houses in this situation is pretty absurd.'
Monsters popping out, people getting murdered, cut off from the outside world.
No telling when they'd die themselves, yet complaining about accommodations?
'Delicate? Or just comfortably full?'
As I stood there dumbfounded, one of them took my silence as agreement and shouted.
"At least give us houses like those! This is too primitive!"
"Like those?"
Following their pointing fingers, I saw the Roman-style buildings the early survivors had claimed.
Mine was among them.
I clicked my tongue lightly and addressed the group.
"No can do. Those are already taken."
"Taken?"
"By me and the other early survivors."
"Can't they make room? You're by yourself."
Well, now. Things were getting ridiculous.
What did my being alone have to do with their big families?
My expression was souring when someone muttered.
"Dad, just pick any house and let's go in."
"Quiet. Who knows how long we'll even live..."
"The quest said pick from the ones here anyway. Occupied ones are off-limits."
"That damn quest again! How long are you gonna obsess over that crap?"
It was the high schooler who'd first sent the rescue request my way.
Out of all these adults, the kid had the quickest grasp of the situation.
It was almost funny.
They'd accepted the quest but still eyed occupied houses?
'No more need to accommodate them.'
I sneered and yelled at the crowd.
"I've heard your complaints loud and clear."
"So...?"
"I can't give up my house. Don't know how even if I wanted to. But forcing you into those wouldn't be responsible either."
"That's exactly what we're saying!"
"That's why I've come up with a special solution."
As they all hung on my words, I paused dramatically before shouting.
"I'll send you all back!"
"...What?"
"Exactly what I said! I'll escort you personally!"
The crowd froze solid.
They'd expected some grand fix?
Tough luck. All I had was cold reality.
"I'm not giving up my house! The others won't either! So sending you back is the only option!"
"You brought us here and now this...!"
"I'm truly sorry! As compensation—sort of—stop by the convenience store on the way and take all the food you want! The owner's dead; no one's gonna complain!"
"...!"
Their faces drained of color.
Memories of mangled corpses resurfacing, no doubt.
Something that could happen anywhere outside the safe zone.
I yelled again, emphasizing every word.
"Anyone who wants to go, step forward! I'll escort you back myself! If you hate the safe zone that much, no choice!"
"...."
"...."
The grumbles died instantly.
They glanced at each other hesitantly.
For all their complaints about being dragged here, nobody wanted to leave the safe zone.
"Changed your minds? I thought you all wanted to go."
"...Who said we wanted to leave!? We want better conditions!"
"B-Bro!"
A man with bandages on his hand stepped forward, fuming.
The eldest son from the first family I'd rescued.
His high school brother tried to stop him, but he kept going.
"This is too much! 'Shut up and obey if you wanna live,' is that it!?"
"Bro, please!"
"This is tyranny! Even if you saved us, you have no right to do this!"
The crowd's eyes shifted at his outburst.
Despair reignited into flames; they were buying into it.
I watched, then chuckled.
"You're right. I have no such authority."
"What?"
"But what even is authority? I just got a quest, so I brought you here. I said from the start: I'm saving you for the reward."
"That's..."
"Quest's done, reward claimed. I was gonna wash my hands of it, but you complain? I tried to help, but it's not something I can fix."
Can't build new houses, don't wanna give up mine.
Others' houses aren't my call.
What can I do?
If you hate the monk, the temple empties.
"So last chance: anyone who wants better houses, I'll send you back. Couldn't think of anything else."
"...Sophistry!"
"Call it what you want; I never planned to take responsibility. Sending you home is my final courtesy. Why'd you think I'd cater to demands in the first place?"
"...!"
The man gaped, speechless.
He'd spotted the flaw in his own logic.
Complain, argue, curse all they want.
Key was whether I'd budge.
Spoiler: I wouldn't.
"Seems like a misunderstanding. I'm no cop or firefighter. I saved you like helping granny with her kimchi jar on the way by. But then she wants me to clean her house too? Wrong guy; drop the jar and run."
"...."
"Go ahead, yell about where I'm going. 'You carried it this far, take full responsibility!' Demand I come clean and cook. But I ain't doing it. Scream alone in your corner if you want."
That was the knockout blow.
The man crumpled like his legs gave out.
I stared at him a moment, then turned to the crowd.
"Kimchi jar's delivered. Who wants the cleaning now?"
"...."
"Speak up. Freedom of speech. Won't change a thing I'll do."
"...."
Heads bowed, eyes averted.
The brewing complaints had vanished clean away.
More like they'd faced reality.
Nobody here owed them salvation.
Just strangers who didn't care if they lived or died.
'Quest completion rate's lower than I thought.'
I sighed after a good night's sleep and surveyed the village, now bustling with people.
The numbers had grown, but still under a hundred.
Twenty were from me and Min Jae-yoon.
That left the other eleven having rescued fewer than eighty combined.
'No, that pig skipped the quest entirely, so twelve people?'
Glancing at the tattooed guy, he flinched and looked away.
My threat to kill him outside the safe zone must've stuck.
Or more precisely, seeing me wipe out those skeletons.
Wise choice, even if he didn't know it.
That wasn't a bluff; it was pure intent.
"Fuck! Come out already! We're here to save you!"
"We won't eat you! Promise!"
Shouts echoed from afar, but no one emerged.
Those who'd hidden this long were cowards; no way they'd come out now.
If anything, they'd barricade tighter in fear.
"Around a hundred now, I guess."
Adding rescues to those who'd taken the quest, it felt about right.
I recalled the base population in World Rebuild villages.
Wasn't it also around a hundred?
Might be coincidence, but it nagged at me.
"Goddamn it! Can't do more!"
"Ugh, beat. Sleep first."
Quest failures trudged back, exhausted from the all-nighter.
Smart call.
Better rest than fight fatigued and slip up fatally.
Problem was, the system wasn't generous with time.
Sure enough, as the sun rose, messages rang out.
"...What?"
Migration? Dimensional migration, at that?
What the hell did that mean?
No time to ponder, unfortunately.
The moment the messages ended, the scenery around the village began to warp.
