Five Hours of Solo Guerrilla Warfare

During our guerrilla warfare, it seemed like both Mari’s inner and outer self were growing. Feeling proud of her, I stroked her ears once more. Rub, rub—

“Aang~ Why do you keep touching my ears... Hing...”

‘But you like it, don’t you?’

I stroked both ears a few more times before returning to our position with her, her face now faintly flushed.

‘How am I supposed to endure the rest of this time...’

It was lucky we had secured a spot that was easy to defend, but even I—an undead—felt somewhat drained. I could only imagine how exhausted the other hunters must be.

Whenever I had no idea what to do, I checked my status window.

‘It’s grown a lot.’

My sensory stat had broken into the nineties, instantly stretching the distance I could be separated from Mari all the way to eight hundred meters. Beneath the window, the reward message from leaving the hidden dungeon was blinking.

‘Oh, right. This was here.’

I really must have been more distracted than I realized.

‘Huh…? Tanemoro? This is from the same people who made my Gliding Cloak!’

It was another artifact created by the same artisans. In my previous life it hadn’t been this item, so this was the first time the reward had changed.

‘Well… the dungeon difficulty had shifted that much, so they had to give this level of compensation.’

At any rate, my body trembled with delight. Looking closer, the options synergized beautifully with the cloak, and I found myself hoping it would unlock the hidden functions of the military cloak that was still stuck at stage one.

The unpainted, cold gray greaves soon floated above my palm. Without hesitation I equipped them on my legs. Sure enough, they clung perfectly and adjusted their size on their own.

‘There’s no way I can stay calm about this!’

In a situation like now—where I had to run away so often—this felt like the ultimate artifact.

Clack— Clack-clack— Clack—

Not only me; all around, hunters who had received their rewards were wearing their new artifacts with bright, joyful faces. Half the people had collapsed from exhaustion without even checking their rewards, which meant the ones still awake possessed that much greed. Still, it was impressive. Most were probably wearing an artifact for the first time, so their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠excitement was huge, and I couldn’t help but feel good along with them.

‘Let’s test it out.’

So the others wouldn’t be startled, I concealed my form, activated Cognitive Impairment, and leaped toward the sky with every ounce of strength I had.

Swooooooooosh—!

‘Whoa! Are you serious?!’

The last time I had jumped with everything I had was when Mari and I encountered the Tooth. I had no choice but to be shocked at how much higher I reached this time.

How far had I jumped? Around forty meters? An apartment floor was roughly four meters, so I had cleared more than ten stories in a single bound.

Good grief… So this was the world that high-ranking reinforcement-type hunters lived in.

“Clack-clack-clack-clack-clack!”

‘This is completely overpowered!’

Since no one could see me, I danced with my shoulders in midair. I had already been feeling the limits of simple gliding anyway; I had been using High-Speed Flight quite often even when I didn’t need to change direction.

‘Hmm… With this, there’s even less reason to wait around here quietly.’

As I slowly descended, I spread my sensory waves far into the distance. The number of undead caught within range had increased compared to when I crossed the ridge, and I still had the dagger quest to finish. My mental strength ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had dropped, but since I was the only one without a stamina limit, I simply had to push harder.

(Lan, come with me.)

(Hm? I wanted to stay by Master’s side, though.)

(If something happens we’ll need to return quickly, so having you with me is better.)

(Hmph… Guess I have no choice.)

I explained the role I wanted her to play. Mari nodded quietly, then spoke.

“You won’t go too far, right? If anything happens, come back immediately. Promise?”

I nodded. The hunters who were still awake looked worried about me leaving, but once they heard that my excursion was meant to pull enemy attention away from this place, they even offered quiet cheers of support.

Lan, now perched on my shoulder, immediately cast Acceleration. Along with a message that my body felt lighter and more agile, I shot forward like living lightning.

— Whoaaa!

Leaving someone’s exclamation of awe behind, I moved as far as I possibly could.

‘Did they target us earlier simply because we had just exited the dungeon?’

The massive horde that had charged with murderous intent was gone. Only small groups of around fifty undead were scattered about. Of course, these small packs would eventually merge into a large force, so I eliminated every one I saw. I saved the bombs I was crafting and dealt with the enemies using fireballs and daggers.

Thanks to the new artifact, my magic power had risen to 423, so spamming fireballs no longer felt burdensome.

‘Hunting alone seems to make runes drop more often.’

The values were ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠low, but they were still money. Thinking of them as money bags lying all over the ground made the extermination even more enjoyable.

After sweeping the area for about twenty minutes, I spotted a group of giant skeletons far away. These were different from the ones that had chased us before.

Just how many of these damn things were there?

‘Their numbers can’t be infinite. I need to reduce them as much as possible to minimize the damage if a dungeon break occurs.’

I switched the stage-two cloak into flight mode, stayed in Cognitive Impairment, and flew around while stacking Flame Marks on their bodies.

— Bwoooooar?!

Because they were so huge, maybe they couldn’t feel my dagger pokes? Their reaction was terribly slow.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaang—!

Three consecutive Flame Explosions detonated. The giant skeleton vanished without leaving even a single bone fragment. The tremendous flames instantly pulled the aggro of every nearby monster.

Defeating three giant skeletons granted roughly one point of thorn-control reward.

‘Hmm… They were weaker than the first one I killed in the canyon, so only a slight increase?’

Still, any rise in bone-thorn control was welcome. I really was gaining a lot from this dungeon.

I lured the swarming monsters in the opposite direction of our main base and continued my guerrilla warfare.

One hour. Three hours. Then five hours passed.

‘Huff— Huff— How many have I killed?’

I kept running while waiting for my magic power to recover, then rampaged again once it refilled. The efficiency wasn’t great, but I had destroyed well over a thousand.

Yet even my personal aggro-drawing seemed to have reached its limit.

‘Two Skeleton Knights… And that bastard is behind them.’

That annoying creature was roaming the field while keeping a fixed distance with two Skeleton Knights. Of course they were far weaker than the one from the hidden dungeon, but facing two at once while my magic power was heavily depleted would not be easy. Each commanded a thousand troops as well.

On top of that, Nargul was present. Unlike the Skeleton Knight in the hidden dungeon, these two did not treat each other as enemies; they seemed to respect one another’s territories.

They were gradually tightening their formation toward our main base.

Five hours had passed since I left, but my comrades’ recovery was surely not complete yet. If we clashed with that force now, our alliance would collapse in an instant.

‘There was another group around here that could fight alongside us.’

Thousands of hunters had entered the Dungeon of Nargul. When this space first twisted, they couldn’t possibly have all been wiped out. Somewhere, they had to be holding out and fighting desperately just like us.

‘This spot has the largest group. They’re managing to maintain these numbers?’

Centered on our main base and forming a semicircle, a group of just under a hundred people had gathered at the far right end. In the middle of a bubbling swamp, a small round island rose up. It was too tiny to truly call an island, yet it was large enough for a hundred people to rest comfortably.

The hunters packed tightly onto the island were fighting the undead that crawled across the swamp.

‘Smart.’

If food and water could be secured, it was the perfect terrain. I didn’t know how they had crossed over, but there had to be at least one ability user among them capable of traversing the swamp.

I wanted to move closer and observe their faces, but I sensed a circular barrier around the island and stopped.

‘Their expressions are rather… dark.’

The fighting itself looked manageable, but the food problem seemed severe. Being trapped in an enclosed space would also create considerable mental pressure. Even now they were split into two factions. The more anxious group was probably the one short on supplies.

‘Okay. If it comes down to it, I can lure the enemy this way.’

I ran back toward the area with the Skeleton Knights and Nargul. Both bombs and magic power were fully charged. Soon after I started moving, I saw them—one Nargul and two Skeleton Knights appearing together in perfect harmony.

I approached in stealth, but light flashed from the staff the central Nargul held, stripping my concealment away.

‘It was a wand with a detection barrier as standard.’

More precisely, the power came from the gem socketed into the staff.

[Swoooooooar—!]

Nargul noticed me first and ordered its minions ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to erase my existence.

Kugugugugugugung—!

An earth-shaking army charged solely to catch me. The Skeleton Knights also spread out on both flanks, leading their thousand-strong units straight at me.

‘Does my existence annoy them that much?’

Honestly, it was absurd. I had been conducting guerrilla warfare while keeping twenty percent of my strength in reserve, planning to flee to the hunters’ position if necessary. Yet they were focusing their entire force on me? Were they insane?

‘Fine, then—!’

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwaaaang—!

As always, it began with an explosion—!