The Tutorial Ends Here
The phrase “Could you please inform the patrol soldiers on the main road about this?” was the opening line of the linked quest, but I had no obligation to follow it obediently. The linked quest Monster That Wields Poison was something I could resolve myself.
“Do you remember what the monster’s cry sounded like?”
The monster for this quest wasn’t fixed. It was randomly chosen from venom spider, venom moth, or venom snake at a 20/40/40 ratio. I could tell which one had appeared from the cry Mary described or from the surrounding situation. Among them, the venom snake was the strongest, but at the point when this quest triggered, it was an easy enough difficulty to fight head-on without any real problems.
The real issue was everything else—specifically the hidden monster that appeared at an extremely low rate.
“I don’t remember the details clearly… but I think it sounded like a beast.”
“…Yeah. There was no way this would go normally.”
A sigh escaped me the moment my premonition became reality. The line Mary had just spoken was the exact dialogue that played when the hidden monster, a manticore, appeared.
I got completely wiped. (Did you trick me? Die.) Answer me, KimLmao.
Back then I wondered why only these kids had it so rough. It turned out I had it backwards. A harsh life was the default for them. The developers had actually made it easier for release. If not for Diana’s guidance, these children would have died here today.
Unlike the game, reality didn’t let you postpone or retry quests.
“It uses poison and makes a beast-like sound… It might be a manticore.”
But right now, I was here. A burning passion flared in my chest, telling me not to abandon these children.
“Man…ticore?”
“…I’ve heard the name vaguely before. It was a very dangerous monster.”
Unlike Melu, who stumbled over the pronunciation as if it were completely foreign, Mary seemed to have at least heard the name.
“At the very least, it wouldn’t be near the main road.”
It was the kind of monster you’d expect in remote mountains or among the Evil God’s army. If we hadn’t come, it would have slaughtered them soon anyway.
“Then we have to report it even faster! Our village is nearby…!”
Causing two civilian casualties… or the minor damage of destroying one small village.
Considering a monster on the level of a manticore had appeared so close to populated areas, the damage was unusually light.
“Calm down. The fact that you’re still alive means it must be a juvenile. If it had been an adult, you wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
“Hic…”
“So I’ll hunt it for you.”
The passion in my chest burned hotter. I had gained strength. In that case, wasn’t this exactly the place to use it?
“So don’t worry. I’m right here with you.”
“You really are good at that, you know.”
“…? Walking?”
“Hitting on girls.”
“Pffft!”
It was an incomprehensible jab, but the rest of the journey was peaceful. The mountain path wasn’t particularly rugged to begin with. There was even a well-trodden trail, suggesting it was used often, so I had the leisure to look around.
No signs of an ambush.
We arrived at a ridge with a clear view, a gentle stream flowing through a flat area—a perfect spot to rest.
“I smell a beast.”
The distinctive stench of a carnivore began to fill the air, mixed with the rotting odor unique to decay. No doubt about it. The manticore was here.
“…For something that reeks this much, I don’t see it right away.”
“There’s a cave over there.”
As expected, having a local guide made things easy. Thanks to Mary, who had recovered from the detoxification but still insisted on following us, we located the manticore’s lair immediately.
“…………”
The beastly stench grew stronger. It was definitely inside.
“It doesn’t look like it plans to come out.”
Even though it must have noticed us, the creature was hiding and holding its breath. As expected of a monster with a lion’s body and a human’s brain. It’s clever.
It was a solid nige-waza strategy. The inside of the cave was probably already filled with the deadly poisonous gas it spewed from its mouth.
“Is that cave deep?”
“A little. It’s narrow too.”
A narrow cave with almost no light meant that if I simply blocked the entrance and threw punches, there would be nowhere to run. On top of that, the manticore’s tail carried scorpion venom, creating a poisoning risk separate from the gas. That is, if your strength was lacking.
“No escape routes, right?”
“I’ve never gone deep because it’s dangerous, but I’ve never heard of another exit.”
“Good. That’s enough.”
THUD.
“Eh?”
I pulled out the Thousandweight. Both Mary and Melu were startled by the sudden appearance of the massive metal mountain, but I paid them no mind. Instead, I walked forward lightly while pumping my muscles.
Creak. Crunch.
The muscles packed tightly beneath my skin wriggled with heat. My current estimated strength was in the late 300s. It was enough power to win an arm-wrestling match against a Sword Master. I had officially stepped beyond the limits of the human species.
The combination of that power and the Thousandweight allowed for area-of-effect attacks.
“Cover your ears, kids.”
Diana gently calmed the startled children and covered their ears. Her unusually kind demeanor made it hard to tell whether she simply liked children or had some special feelings toward these two. Still, it was necessary right now.
The technique roared like lightning.
BOOM!
When I drove the penetrating strike into the cave, the entire mountain range shook. Any ordinary creature would have been crushed by that single blow and coughed up blood.
But letting my guard down is forbidden! Across both reality and fiction, the number one cause of death is complacency. So I kept going.
Ultra-high-speed strikes left afterimages of my arms as they hammered the cave and the nearby cliff.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Every punch made the ground tremble and carved away the cave. It was a spectacular sight, but the sensation at my fingertips was strangely different. Oddly enough, despite the difference in scale, it felt similar to children playing in dirt. Just as you instinctively know when you’ve reached solid ground beneath a thin layer of soil, I could sense exactly where my fists were landing.
BOOM!
My fist had reached the end of the cave—the bedrock. The moment I sensed it, I stopped punching.
“Oh my god…”
Part of the mountain had been completely shaved away, leaving a pile of rubble. Unless there was another escape tunnel, it must have been crushed flat.
Just in case, I pressed down hard on the debris one final time.
“That should do it.”
All that remained were the cliff’s ruins. Even if it had survived, if it dug its way out of that it wouldn’t be a manticore—it would be a rock worm. And that was cosmic-level bad luck, something my strength couldn’t do anything about.
“So I wrapped it up like this. What do you think?”
Satisfied with my thorough work, I turned around.
“…………”
“…………”
The two girls were staring at me with terrified expressions.
Was that a bit much?
I understood it didn’t look good, but seeing them so openly afraid still stung a little.
“Well done. With this, the manticore threat has been completely eliminated.”
“If you’re going to do something, do it right. It wasn’t even that hard.”
That was why Diana’s praise felt like comfort. My inner passion scolded me, saying that actions meant to help others shouldn’t seek reward.
“Our work here is finished. Let’s head back.”
“Yeah.”
I stored the Thousandweight and took Diana’s hand. It was a shame to end it this way, but I had saved people today. That fact brought me a sense of fulfillment.
Just as I began walking down the mountain following Diana’s gentle lead—
Tap. Tap tap.
The sound of hurried footsteps came from behind us.
“S-sorry! Thank you so much for helping us!”
“As expected, Mary’s quick on the uptake.”
Fear still lingered in her voice as she called out to us. Even so, the reason she had forced herself to follow us again was probably to avoid leaving a bad impression.
“And don’t get hurt again!”
I waved lightly in response. After all, could the emotion soaked into that voice really be nothing but fear? At the pure-hearted girl’s words of gratitude, the passion inside me seemed satisfied. It flickered warmly once before quietly fading away.
Quest complete.
“Then I suppose I should tell you why I deliberately led us here.”
“Huh? Wasn’t it to save those kids?”
“It wasn’t.”
Well, was that really true? Diana’s calm expression seemed to say ‘I don’t tell lies~’ but the affectionate way she had looked at the two children earlier suggested otherwise.
“This was the goal.”
What she took out was the Spiral of Good Deeds. The small horn-shaped relic was the same as before, but something had changed.
Grade: Relic
Status: Absorbing pure white light
Effect: Stores Good Deed Energy generated from altruistic acts. Required to unseal the Evil God’s prison.
“It’s glowing.”
It was very faint, but it was definitely emitting light compared to before. It was a pure white with no other colors mixed in.
“When you help others, when you perform a clear good deed, or when you kill an evil being with karma—this glows and fills with power. Would you like to look inside?”
“Something’s sloshing around in there.”
“If I had to name it, it would be Good Deed Energy.”
It was so straightforward it almost felt childish, yet at the same time it perfectly described the power.
“Even if you turn it over, it doesn’t spill, so you don’t have to worry.”
Diana flipped the horn relic as she continued.
“I told you before. This allows entry into the Evil God’s sealed ground.”
“Yeah… From the look of it, that Good Deed Energy seems to be the key.”
“Correct. To enter the sealed ground, a certain amount of Good Deed Energy must be offered.”
“An interesting restriction.”
It meant that even if an Evil God follower stole the Spiral of Good Deeds, they would still need to perform good deeds to use it. There was probably a safety mechanism that reduced the energy if evil acts were committed.
“If you do good deeds, your name gets known, making it easier to track you.”
“That is one of the methods.”
“Well, we don’t need to think about their tracking methods right now. The point is we need to fill this thing.”
Once again, passion ignited within me. Advancing while performing good deeds on a pilgrimage—this was exactly his taste.
“Knightly training! Chivalrous conduct!”
It was the perfect alignment of hobby and profit.
“And now that we’ve reached this point, I’ll deliver the words from you before the regression.”
“Huh?”
Diana’s words cooled my excited heart. The me from the future who was me yet not me. And a possible future where I had died and failed. It wasn’t something I had never considered. It wasn’t strange for someone who knew more to advise someone who knew less. Still, the situation of another version of myself sending a message was not something I could easily calm down about.
“The tutorial ends here.”