Chapter 39

We decided to treat each item as a separate paragraph. Potion grades were standardized as “High-Grade Potions” and “Mid-Grade Potions.” In narrative descriptions, we decided to use the lowercase term “inventory.” We are finalizing the version to ensure there are no BOMs or spaces left on the first line._TITLE: The One Spared by the Blast

Even Yujun, who had never been caught in the blast, felt its force so keenly that gooseflesh prickled across his entire body. Come on... I told you to save the mana. Paranet had clearly poured out every last drop he had. Still, I can't complain about the results. Most of the Pride faction players who had been charging him were simply gone, erased without a trace.

Yujun seized the opening and swallowed a stamina potion. It did more than close his wounds — it gave back some of the stamina he had burned through. When it came to restoring stamina rather than healing injuries, though, the effect was meager. Even so, it was far better than drinking nothing at all.

Anyway... I wonder how the fight between the commanders is going. He looked up toward the top of the wall. The thunder that had been rolling for some time — boom, boom, boom — was not magic detonating, or anything else exploding. It was the sound of the two commanders locked in combat.

And it was no even match. Kulterum was driving Narsha back. She was not on the brink of death, but under his assault she could do little more than give ground. Can the gap in strength between commanders really be this wide? Even as he wondered, something seemed to click, and Yujun nodded to himself. Right. They said our commander can't bring herself to kill. That explains it.

A Sloth faction commander forced to fight with that kind of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠caution had no choice but to be pushed back. Kulterum swung his glaive as if fatigue were a thing that happened to other people. I need to finish this quickly and go help.

While Kulterum's attention stayed fixed on Narsha, the Pride faction's numbers dropped hard — hard enough that even a glance made it plain the Sloth faction players now outnumbered them. If Narsha could hold out just a little longer, the Sloth faction's chances of winning were high.

Paranet, even after unleashing a massive Corpse Explosion, faced the remaining players looking perfectly intact. Undead as he was, he showed no sign of tiring at all. I really do envy the undead for that.

Ever since receiving the Mythic-grade ring, Paranet's martial power had climbed dramatically. No — climbed was too small a word. He had become a being of an entirely different order. Set me and the commanders aside, and he might be the strongest thing out here. His trait rank was high, he commanded the devastating magic of Corpse Explosion, and being undead meant he never tired.

Once some of his stamina had returned, Yujun started moving again. The orcs were nearly wiped out. What remained were dwarves and trolls. Trolls were normally a miserable race to kill, between their toughness and their regeneration, but not now. Yujun's attack power was beyond imagining. One blow from him, and a troll died on the spot, its death-cry tearing the air.

"Graaaah!"

These things are so much stronger than the trolls from the fifth-floor trial that it's hard to even compare them. I really have gotten stronger.

Trolls divided further into many kinds. A troll was not simply a troll. The ones that had appeared here traded a somewhat smaller frame for regenerative power greater still — though smaller, in their case, still meant roughly the size of a house. Every swing of his sword swept Pride faction players away. More precisely, their necks did not survive the swing. It was more lopsided than a fight between a child and a grown man. After a few more passes of the same, hardly any Pride faction players remained on the field. Five hundred, at most. A number the Sloth faction could clean up without trouble.

Yujun turned toward the place where Kulterum and Narsha were still fighting. Fierce isn't the word. It's completely one-sided.

Narsha, commander of the Sloth faction, was being driven back by Kulterum with nothing she could do to stop it. Unlike him, spotless and unhurt, her body was laced with wounds that looked as if they had been torn open, and blood poured from them in streams. He never gave her a moment to stanch it. He simply kept pressing. She threw herself through violent movements to dodge his attacks, and her face grew paler with every exchange. She won't last much longer.

Yujun kicked off the ground. He was tiring a little himself, but this was no time to rest. He closed in behind Kulterum in a flash and swung Cleaving Strike.

He had come in so fast that Kulterum registered him only at the instant the sword fell. The blade sheared in with a crack like a detonation, and Kulterum tumbled across the ground several times before heaving himself back up. Cleaving Strike hit far harder than an ordinary attack. That was why a simple swing of the sword rang out like a bomb going off.

"Kh—!"

So close. Yujun clicked his tongue. He had been aiming for the neck, but Kulterum had twisted in time, and the sword only carved across his back. Does this guy not have a weak point? Maybe he carried something like Paranet's survival instinct. Yujun had thought that ambush was perfect. He clicked his tongue again, annoyed at the waste.

Kulterum fixed him with a blood-red glare.

"So you're that one from before! I shouldn't have let you live."

"What are you talking about? You're the one who ran. Because you were scared of me. All that size, and you're still a coward."

Yujun taunted him to buy Narsha time to treat her wounds. But she only clutched the torn places with her hands and did nothing else. He pulled a high-grade potion from his inventory and tossed it to her. She caught it and tilted her head.

"Use it. Hurry up. Don't just stand there."

That was when Kulterum charged. The taunt had landed. He came on with a face like a vengeful ghost, and his speed was astonishing — nothing anyone would expect from a body that huge. Not so fast, though, that Yujun could not follow him.

Yujun kept his eyes wide and slipped the glaive as it came screaming in, and in the same motion drove his sword straight forward. It punched through. Maybe the deep wound across Kulterum's back was to blame; he failed to react, and the blade ran him clean through the chest.

"Guhk!"

The fight had tilted. Yujun was about to swing again when Kulterum's glaive flared with light — a brilliance so fierce it seemed it would burn the eyes out of anyone who looked at it. A bad feeling struck him in that same instant.

"M-Master!"

Paranet came flying in from behind and wrapped himself around Yujun. An enormous explosion swallowed the area. Bone dust drifted on the air, and Paranet was forcibly unsummoned.

...Did he protect me? Paranet's survival instinct. He had sensed his master's danger well ahead of time and come running from far off. Yujun was grateful. There was no need to say it aloud. The feeling would reach him anyway. He was a summon, after all.

But still... Then the state of his surroundings registered, and a chill crawled up his spine. The whole area had been obliterated. Corpses of Pride faction players and Sloth faction players lay everywhere, bodies ripped to pieces, and it was hard to find even one that still held its shape. Kulterum was no exception. He had taken the blast point-blank, with no defense at all. It would have been stranger if he were unhurt.

That demon last time, and now this. Why are there so many bastards who blow themselves up? Irritation flared. Yujun thumbed the cork from a mid-grade potion, dumped the whole thing into his mouth, and walked over to where Kulterum had fallen. Time to end it.

He had meant to kill Kulterum together with Narsha, but the situation had flipped so suddenly that a joint attack was no longer necessary. She only watched him from a distance. Kulterum lay without the slightest twitch. And look at that — even now his wounds are closing. He really is a monster. While the bastard had been in perfect condition, Yujun had not believed he could handle him at all. It was only his relatively high Agility that had let him contend with him even a little.

He drove his sword down into Kulterum's neck. The blade sank deep, and once was not enough to kill him. A second thrust. A third. Only then did Kulterum's breath stop.

What? Why didn't my level go up? Killing the jiangshi ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had definitely raised it. The gap here had to be two hundred and fifty levels or more. Well, what matters most is the reward for the third mission. There was no need to be disappointed. A title was better than nothing.

At some point, every fight on the battlefield had stopped. Maybe because the commander had fallen. Maybe because of that explosion. It could have been both.

Yujun headed back to where the Sloth faction players had gathered. Hong Yeji and the others were breathing hard. The survivors on the Sloth side looked to number about a thousand. The Pride faction had been all but annihilated.

"Yujun."

Hong Yeji called out to him.

"Yes."

"I think I underestimated you."

"......"

"I had no idea you were this strong... Taking on dozens of players at once, and all the rest of it... You're seriously no joke."

"You flatter me."

"And at the end you even took the commander down by yourself. I totally thought, at first, that you were just trying to look good in front of our commander."

Hong Yeji's chatterbox streak had kicked in again.

"Yeah, yeah."

He was not about to play along in earnest, so Yujun settled for a vague nod.

"Yujun!"

Another familiar voice came from behind him. He turned and found an elf with a face he knew.

"Mei?"

"That's right! You remember me!"

"We saw each other not long ago."

"I know, right? What a crazy coincidence. I never thought we'd run into each other here like this. So you were entering the Species Tournament too. I didn't even think of that."

The elf beside her cut in.

"What are you talking about, Mei? You joined the Species Tournament because you wanted to see that huma—"

Mei frantically clapped a hand over her companion's mouth.

"Yujun! You've gotten even stronger!"

"Yeah. I got lucky."

"Oh, stop. There you go being modest again."

"You actually managed to stay alive."

"I spent the whole time running. I don't care if death here is only virtual. I absolutely did not want to go through it."

"Anyone would feel the same."

"So who's that next to you?"

"Someone I met here. A party member, for now."

"Aha..."

Mei looked Hong Yeji up and down. There was no ill will in it. She simply seemed curious about who this person was.

"Nice to meet you."

"Yeah. You too."

For a while the survivors talked freely, with nothing pressing on them. When does this mission end?

Just as the thought crossed his mind, Narsha, commander of the Sloth faction, came over and spoke to him.

"It was a mission that measures contribution, wasn't it?"

Yujun nodded.

"Why? You planning to give me a present?"

"A present isn't mine to give. The system decides, based on what I've seen, heard, and judged."

"Why are you trapped in here?"

It was the question that had been nagging at him. Narsha let out a short laugh.

"And what would you do if you knew?"

"I'm not planning to do anything with it. I'm just curious. Did you get assigned to this mission or something? It doesn't look like you're here by choice."

"I can't tell you the details. Just think of it as something I'm doing to lift my curse."

"What happens once the Species Tournament is ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠over? Does someone like you stay in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Tower of Infinity?"

Narsha nodded.

"And the Pride faction's commander? Is he actually dead? Or does he come back, like the other players?"

"Curious one, aren't you, human."

"Yeah. So tell me a little. I helped you earlier."

"You didn't help. You put me in danger. In the end, I got dragged into a fight I never wanted because of you."

"Oh, come on. When you were about to die, I'm the one who saved you."

Narsha stared at him in sheer disbelief, then spoke.

"...Kulterum isn't actually dead. He's probably off somewhere in the Tower of Infinity, playing orc chieftain."

"He is?"

"Yeah. He's a player too."

"Are you even allowed to tell me that?"

"You already knew, didn't you? All right. Off you go. The mission's over."

Hong Yeji cut in from beside them.

"Wait! There's something I want to ask, too..."

"Not you."

Narsha refused her flat, without a second's pause.

A hologram window appeared before Yujun's eyes.