Chapter 22
Chapter 22
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Into the Sealed Dungeon
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“No, how on earth did I manage to parry something like that?”
After clearing the Headless Armored Cavalryman, I grunted and hauled the lance he’d been wielding onto my horse. I planned to use this massive spear and the severed horse head as proof of my victory.
It wasn’t just swinging this brutal weapon around on foot—it was at full gallop from horseback—and yet I’d deflected it without so much as being pushed back. I couldn’t help but marvel at myself.
In reality, getting hit by that would’ve sent me flying through the air, weapon and all, parry or no parry.
The horse was still waiting patiently where I’d tied it up. I stroked its mane a few times before hanging the weapon on one side of the saddle. On the opposite side, I secured the severed horse head.
Both were heavy enough that I had to strain to lift them, but the horse didn’t seem fazed in the slightest.
‘Well, one thing down, at least.’
I hopped into the saddle and took hold of the reins. I’d cleared the Headless Armored Cavalryman, but it wasn’t time to head back to the knights’ order yet. I still had business to take care of first.
Finding something to lure out that lord bastard.
I urged the horse toward the nearby mountain. Just like before, the trip took nearly half a day.
When I’d set out, the sun had been high overhead, but by the time I reached my destination, it was sinking toward the horizon in a blaze of crimson twilight.
I tied the horse to a nearby tree and approached the massive boulder. Behind this giant rock lay the entrance to the dungeon I was after.
In a standard playthrough, uncovering the secret here wouldn’t happen until the story hit mid-game. Before that, the plot never even brought you to this area.
Unless you ignored the story and grinded side quests nonstop, maybe.
But if you already knew the secret, getting inside was straightforward. I pulled a round stone from my pocket. It was the item dropped by the Headless Armored Cavalryman.
This was the key to unseal the dungeon entrance. A wild horse grazing by the roadside had accidentally swallowed it, gotten possessed by its power, and become the Headhead Armored Cavalryman.
Holding it, I circled behind the rock and thrashed through the thick overgrowth. In the game, you had to burn it away with fire magic to reveal the secret, but now I could clear brush like this without starting a fire.
Once I’d cleared the foliage, something emerged from the dirt floor: a stone slab with a round hole in the center and intricate runes carved on either side.
The runes on both slabs were a warning. Roughly translated: “If you can read this, do not unseal the demon.”
‘Not particularly useful.’
Anyone trekking out to a place like this—tucked away in the farthest boonies of the empire—wasn’t going to back off because of a warning like that.
I fitted the item from the Headless Armored Cavalryman into the slab’s round hole. It slotted in perfectly. The slab emitted a faint white glow.
I stepped back and watched the boulder. It rumbled and vibrated, cracks spiderwebbing across its surface. Starting from the base, the fissures grew and spread until the entire rock was fractured.
Moments later, with a thunderous crash, the boulder crumbled. Shards of stone tumbled down the mountainside. Dust billowed up nearby.
‘Finally.’
I waved my arm to disperse the dust cloud. In the boulder’s place stood a dungeon entrance just wide enough for one person—the exact thing I was looking for.
After confirming no monsters lurked nearby, I returned to the horse and grabbed a torch from the saddle.
In the game, you’d just quickslot it and scroll the mouse wheel to pull it out already lit. Obviously, that didn’t work here, so I had to light it myself.
I’d never used flint before, so it took some fumbling before the flame caught.
‘With air conditioning, fans, and fluorescent lights, why no lighters?’
Maybe because this was a world with fire magic.
Torch in my left hand, bloodied sword in my right, I stood before the entrance. I’d also tied a bag of rations to my belt in case things went south.
In the game, it was a decent-sized dungeon, but who knew how much bigger it might be now. Just reaching the Headless Armored Cavalryman boss field had taken way longer.
I stepped inside slowly. The musty stench of an ancient space hit me.
‘The game differences so far… don’t look like there are any.’
There might be changes deeper in, but on the surface, it matched the game perfectly. I followed the passage onward.
Long ago, this was where the Holy Kingdom’s priests and holy knights had clashed with a demon in a brutal battle. They’d failed to exterminate it and instead sacrificed themselves to seal the cave itself.
That was why the warning was carved there. If a demon powerful enough to defeat the Holy Kingdom broke free, no one knew what catastrophe it might unleash.
But the Holy Kingdom had misunderstood one thing about the demon. It, too, had suffered massive damage blocking the priests and holy knights’ assaults.
Its flesh torn to shreds and scattered throughout the dungeon, its body purified by holy power—even while thrashing in agony, it had driven them back. But its own wounds were grave.
Most of its power had dissipated, leaving it unable to recover naturally. That’s why even when a wild horse swallowed the seal key, it couldn’t break free.
To avoid disintegrating and returning to hell, it had possessed a book and waited for someone to enter and unseal it.
If the Holy Kingdom had known, they’d have fought to the last, no matter the cost. Too bad for them.
‘…I’ll hear that story later.’
Straight from the demon itself, no less.
It was one of Brutal 4’s key features: quests with multiple clear conditions, requiring multiple playthroughs to see every story branch.
—Uuuuugh……
A deflated groan echoed from deeper in the cave. I raised my bloodied sword. Here we go.
From the shadows, something staggered forward with a low uuuuugh. Flesh rotted to mush, rusted armor hanging off it, sword clutched in toothless jaws.
It was the corpse of a holy knight who’d fought the demon here long ago. Fragments of the demon’s scattered flesh had reanimated them as undead.
Though now reduced to shambling rot, it struck a battle stance as if to boast of its former glory as a holy knight.
I leaned my torch against the right wall and gripped my bloodied sword two-handed. The undead holy knight raised its blade overhead, leaned forward, and charged.
I Rolled right to evade, then slashed its flank. Its decrepit sword slammed into the ground with a sharp clang echoing through the cave, and its side burst open.
Undeterred, it spun and lunged again, ignoring the gash. That was the annoying part about undead trash mobs—no stun on hit.
Unless you blasted it away with a massive hammer or greatsword that hurled the whole body back, normal weapons inflicted zero stagger.
Think of them as permanently super-armored against standard gear.
—Clang!
‘But parries still work.’
After trading a few parry exchanges, its movements slowed. I pulled a small shield with my left hand and deflected the incoming blade.
With a crisp ting, it staggered. I drove my bloodied sword into its neck and twisted.
Crack. Its head spun 180 degrees, flesh tearing as it ripped free and spun away. The headless body flailed and collapsed; the severed head clacked its jaws in the distance.
The skill was called Combat Fatigue—why it built up on already-dead undead was beyond me, but I wasn’t one to question it. If it worked, I used it.
I grabbed the torch and nudged the corpse with my boot to check for drops. Nothing.
‘Tch, whiff.’
Looked like I’d have to stick around a bit. With good luck, the first two could drop what I needed and send me straight to the book.
More shambling corpses sounded from afar. Fine by me. I only needed two pieces total. A few minutes’ investment ought to do it.
Back when I’d ground out the achievement for all 100, I’d nearly chucked my mouse. This was nothing.
—Uuuuughhh……
This time, two undead in priest robes shuffled out. I set the torch aside again and gripped my bloodied sword two-handed.
The golden rule of every gacha: keep rolling till you win.