I Don't Need Your Pocket Change
The black horses of the plains carry red horns.
Roughly twenty centimeters long, jutting up sharp as needles.
They hadn't been born with them.
The black horses came into the world hornless, grew up hornless, and died hornless. Life and death followed one another, natural as breathing. The Ring of Circulation.
Neigh.
The ring first cracked the day a horse unlike any the plains had ever seen appeared among them.
Not black like themselves, but a 'Red Horse,' burning crimson.
The black horses kept their distance, wary of the newcomer. If it had merely been a difference of color, perhaps they wouldn't have been so guarded.
The problem was the long horn rising from the Red Horse's brow.
Sharp and menacing at a single glance, that horn was more than enough to plunge the entire herd into fear.
But the Red Horse didn't care. It kept trying to join the herd, and after a long, patient effort, it finally won its place among the black horses.
Neeeigh...
Yet perhaps it had given up too much time in the winning.
By the time the Red Horse was finally accepted, its companions' lifespans had long since run out. The only one untouched by change was the Red Horse itself, born blessed with years far beyond the rest.
Watching its friends wither and die one by one, the Red Horse thought:
'When they're gone, must I start over again, forging bonds with a new generation?'
The newborn foals still feared it. That sharply jutting horn looked ready to skewer them, and its crimson body seemed wicked beyond words.
And by the time that new generation grew old enough to understand it, the Red Horse would return to the earth, and the whole miserable cycle would begin again.
A natural cycle — and cruel to the point of torment. Having stood apart from it for so long, the Red Horse finally made its choice.
"...'If the problem is that I alone am free of it, then let everyone be free of it too.' So that's how it went."
Not exactly a *good* choice, was it?
In the end, it dragged everyone else down into that curse with it.
I was checking the quest story as I cut down a red-horned black horse about thirty percent of whose body had turned crimson, midway up the cave. It seemed the strange phenomenon of this plain had all begun with the Red Horse dragging others into its own fate.
As I chatted with my viewers about the backstory, I turned to Wind Gale Sword, who was hunting away enthusiastically under my buff, and asked what he thought of it all — the lore, and the Red Horse itself.
The little brat sheathed his blade mid-swing and answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Story's boring."
"So the one who's responsible for putting horns on the black horses and making them resurrect over and over is the Red Horse... doesn't that mean killing the field boss would break the resurrection cycle?"
"Nope. We killed the boss and it kept resurrecting anyway."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I know 'cause I tried it with my hyung and noona friends. We've killed it four times at least."
Living up to his name, the kid cut through black horses like a gale.
So the Red Horse's death wasn't the objective of the clear at all, then. It was the origin of it all, sure — but even the Red Horse came back to life every time it died. For the resurrections to truly stop, we'd need to destroy whatever the Red Horse had set in motion...
"...Wait. The field boss *respawns*?"
"Yep."
"Seriously?"
"Fo real. I told you I killed it before."
A respawning field 'boss.' That was a different story entirely.
With ordinary monsters, fine — but bosses coming back to life was rare enough to count on one hand. And even when resurrection was part of a boss's pattern, unless the dungeon reset entirely each time, it never re-dropped experience or resources.
"You're sure this isn't an epic monster you're mistaking for a field boss?"
"Can't believe you don't trust me. Fine, see for yourself then."
Wind Gale Sword rode hard until we reached the spot where that gaze had come from earlier.
As the cave brightened, a red horse at least twice the size of any black horse raised its horn high and fixed its eyes on us.
Neeeigh...
The sharp-horned Red Horse is wary of you.
LV.88
There really was a field boss.
"See? Told you it's real."
"It is, huh."
The name, the level — even the aura rolling off it. Everything about it matched the traits found only on boss-tier monsters.
"So I can go ahead and kill it now?"
"Yeah... wait, no? I get the last hit, so do NOT kill it! Got it?!"
"A kill quest?"
"Yup."
"Should we, then?"
"Then could you give me some de— huh?"
"Try it solo. From what I saw, you know a bit of swordsmanship."
"No way, I can't solo it. You have to put all the restraint spells on—"
The brat — no, Wind Gale Sword — couldn't finish the sentence.
Layers upon layers of buffs were suddenly draped over his body, and the sword that had shown no special qualities until now shot up in specs like the blade of some legendary myth. A vivid green wind whirled around the blade, wrapping it so thickly it was impossible to miss.
Wind Gale Sword's eyes went wide, and he swept his gaze over his own body, again and again.
"Wh-what is this? Huh?"
"Buffs. I gave you a lot more than before, so you should have more than enough to take it down."
"Whoa, insane! This is crazy!"
Like a middle schooler with a cheat code on, Wind Gale Sword kicked his own horse aside and charged straight at the Red Horse.
The Red Horse had the sturdy body and blistering speed befitting a field boss, but it didn't matter.
"Too slow!"
Shaaaak!!
The wind-wreathed blade sheared through the Red Horse's four legs, and it rose high into the air. Wind Gale Sword leapt up after it, slashed at it a dozen times over, twisted his grip, and brought the sword crashing back down.
"Here I gooo!!"
KWAJIIJIK!!!
A single strike, delivered in one breath like a raging gale — and the Red Horse was cut clean apart.
From between the remains walked out the kid, grinning ear to ear.
He looked like he was having the time of his life.
"Whoa, noona, you're insane. At this rate you could beat all the hyungs too, right?"
"What's your current level?"
"Was 61, just hit 62. It'll probably go up more once I turn in the quest."
"How much did your stats go up?"
"Uh, hold on. Ah... like 300 or so? Agility and Strength went way up."
Three hundred.
At that level, this kind of power was well within reason.
Not that stats were the whole story of strength.
"Yesss! Quest cleared!"
"Congratulations. You've got nothing else you need from me now, right?"
"Yep. Noona, seriously, thank you so— huh."
Wind Gale Sword's cheer died mid-breath. He scratched his head and tapped at empty air, opening and closing windows in a flurry.
Then he turned back to me with a face full of dread.
"I'm dead. Ugh..."
"Why?"
"My hyung found out. He's asking what I'm doing with Lily right now."
"Didn't he know from the start?"
"Yeah, but I figured he'd at least check a bit later. He's in the middle of raid prep, so I thought he wouldn't notice for a while."
Still scratching his head, Wind Gale Sword got hit with a flood of messages, tried answering them one by one, and eventually just slammed the window shut.
"Whatever! I'll just go home and get chewed out by him. Who cares."
"At home? Are you two close?"
"Ah, right — the guild master's my hyung. He's the one who got me all my gear, too."
So that's why he was acting out.
No wonder it had seemed odd that he'd shown up alone when not a single member of the Red Moon Guild had come with him, all to clear his quest. Even for a core guild member, trying to gobble up the main boss of a hunting ground the guild manages like this was beyond the pale.
The kid paced back and forth through the cave going aaargh...!, then seemed to reach a decision and spun toward me.
"...Fine. Since I've already been caught anyway. Um, noona? Could you help me out with the quest a little longer?"
"Why would I? I already cleared the boss part for you."
The only reason I'd helped him at all was that clearing the quest stood in for the fee for using the hunting ground. I'd agreed to that, and my buffed-up Wind Gale Sword had killed the Red Horse and cleared it. From the moment the quest was done, I had no remaining reason to help him.
"...You promised you'd clear the quest for me. There's more of it left."
"You should be grateful I did that one part. You got the field boss kill AND kept all the rewards for yourself."
"I'll share some with you!"
"I don't need pocket change."
"Ugh..."
Wind Gale Sword mulled it over.
Money, strength, ability — what could a kid lacking all of them possibly offer to extend a contract that had already ended?
"If you've got nothing, I'm heading out."
"N-no wait! I'll give you the real boss! A real one!"
"A *real* boss?"
"Yes!"