Thwack!
Thwack!
A sword of uncommon brilliance punched clean between the zombie's brows, and the corpse folded without a fight.
"Huff—hah!"
Yujun dragged in a ragged breath. The last zombie was down. He dropped onto the ground in a heap.
"God. I'm dying."
He had been moving without a single pause, and his chest felt as if it were burning out from the inside. Somehow he had held on to the very end without collapsing. He had never known a person could move this hard, for this long. His lungs felt ready to burst, and still he had not gone down.
This'll count as an achievement too, won't it.
He had not cleared the remaining monsters on a whim. Yujun sat and rested for a good long while. The stench of rot rolled in from every direction, but his sense of smell had gone numb ages ago, and none of it troubled him much. Once his breathing had settled, he brushed the dust from his full armor and pushed himself to his feet.
Shall I head back out.
☐ Leave the cemetery and proceed to the heart of the forest.
☐ Eliminate the Ruler of the Forest, the Werewolf. 0/1
The system message ordering him into the forest hovered at his side and refused to fade. It seemed it would remain until the objective was done. The heart of the forest was not far, and there was no chance of losing the way. He only had to walk where the arrow pointed.
The moment he started, his legs trembled uncontrollably. There was nothing to be done about that. He had run without rest and fought more than a hundred zombies and skeletons; it would have been stranger if he were fine. Becoming a player and equipping Legendary-grade gear had not turned him into a full superhuman. You probably had to clear level 100 before you joined that rank.
Even so, this much is fine.
What nagged at him, just a little, was that he did not know the werewolf's strength with any precision.
"Hoo……."
Super Novice Set. He decided to trust it—the finest named equipment in the universe, restricted to level 5 and below. Had it not already shrugged off the zombies' brutal bites? Thanks to the set, he had come this far without a single wound. There was no reason to flinch in advance at an enemy he had not even met.
Before long he found a bleak clearing, empty of trees and brush.
Where's the werewolf?
The arrow pointed straight at this place. The creature had to be here. And yet the enemy that ought to have been in plain sight was nowhere to be seen. A bad feeling crept over him.
Don't tell me—
A vast shadow fell across the ground, and Yujun threw himself forward. A heavy impact shook the earth behind him, chased by a rush of air. The werewolf landed where he had been standing, and its claws sheared through empty space. He was startled, but he did not let it show. He took the creature in at a glance.
Not a named one? Small mercies.
The werewolf sat around level 55. Monsters of that tier were usually hunted in parties once they passed level 40 or so. It was a single creature, yet its strength outstripped others of the same level—in short, a monster so far outside the standard that a beginner had no business facing it. The only comfort was that it was not named.
Can I actually do this?
It was hard to judge. He had never fought a werewolf at a level this low, and this was reality, not a game. He could not move with the crisp, efficient snap of a character on a screen; too much of him was still clumsy. Whether he could handle a werewolf the way he would in a game was anyone's guess.
Four pieces of Legendary gear on me. The level gap is ugly, but…….
He had no choice either way. The werewolf was already charging, yellow drool stringing from its jaws.
Yujun's sword cut a diagonal line through the air. The instant the blade met the werewolf's claws, it sheared in clean—not only through the claws, but deep into the arm itself.
"Graaagh!"
A cry closer to a scream tore out of the werewolf's mouth. Its roar carried an effect that lightly stiffened anyone of a lower level. Equanimity kept Yujun from feeling it at all, and so the opening fell to him instead. He swung with everything he had, as if this were his last chance. The sword bit deep across the werewolf's flank. He had aimed for the chest; the creature's reflexes were astonishing, and it twisted clear. Even so, calling it a dodge was generous. The wound was nothing small. Crimson blood burst from its side.
"Grk!"
Despite the deep cut, the werewolf had not lost its will to fight. The muscle of its thigh swelled, and in the same instant its body shot forward like a bolt. Fast—too fast for Yujun's eyes to follow. Before he could answer, the werewolf's remaining arm slammed into his chest. A boom like a hammer striking iron rolled across the forest clearing.
"Grrrk……!"
The face that twisted in pain belonged to the werewolf. Its forepaw had failed to pierce the Super Novice full armor. The sharp claws were crushed flat, and the paw itself was broken and mangled past all recognition. Yujun had taken only a light shock. No wound, of course.
So this is a Legendary-grade item?
The one who had been struck was more surprised than the werewolf.
At this rate, I'm sure of it. The werewolf was fast, but speed meant nothing if the attacks did not land. I win.
The instant doubt flickered—the sense that he might still lose—he moved first anyway. Wounded as it was, the werewolf slipped the sword that had reached its very face.
Fast. In speed, I don't even compare.
Its Agility was overwhelmingly higher. No—any stat would have been the same story. The saving grace was that its wounds were severe enough that it could not last long.
Wait.
It was a way of fighting he had used often in the game. In the early days, when he had spent heavily, his attack and defense had always sat ahead of whoever he faced. The situation now was not so different.
Focus. Watch its feet.
The werewolf circled, looking for an opening, but it could not charge in as recklessly as before.
"Grrrk……."
Its breathing grew rougher as time passed. It had failed to stop the bleeding. Then came a sharp snap of motion. The werewolf judged that delaying any longer would be dangerous, dropped low, and rushed him at speed. Yujun had been watching closely, and still he lost the movement for a split second. Suddenly the creature was in his face, fangs driving in. Reading what it was aiming for, he threw his arm up. The jaws that meant to swallow his head clamped onto the armor's sleeve instead. Steel rang. Something crunched.
The teeth were clearly quite hard. It had bitten the metal of the arm with all its strength, and the armor still looked intact. The problem—for the werewolf—was that the bite had done no damage at all. Seizing the chance, Yujun drove his sword at its head.
Thwack!
Those eyes had been full of killing intent. The moment the blade sank between its brows, the light blazing in them snuffed out like a lie.
"Hoo……."
Watching that muscular bulk crash to the ground, Yujun let out a sigh of relief.
That was close.
Unlike the zombies and skeletons, the werewolf was extremely fast, and its sense for a fight was alive. For Yujun, who had only just opened his eyes to combat, it was no easy opponent. If not for the Super Novice armor, the one lying on the ground would have been him.
Right. There was the title, too.
The Legendary Item Collector title had done its share—a title that raised item effects by a percentage while four Legendary items were equipped. That effect was too great for any words. Those were the reasons a level 1 had brought down a werewolf past level 40.
Still, maybe I'm not a complete klutz. It had been the same against the zombies. He did not think he had made any major mistakes fighting the werewolf.
……Probably.
That was when it came.
The moment he read the messages, the strength left his legs and he sat down hard.
I really did it.
Only now did it feel real. Wolves, zombies, skeletons, and at the end the werewolf—all of it in the span of a few hours. He had survived, and he had won. A result that would be hard to believe of a complete novice. A proud smile came of its own accord.
One regret, though. I won't be able to use the Super Novice Set anymore.
Finish the tutorial, take the reward, and his level would surely rise. Then the equip restriction would catch him. The set could only be worn at level 5 and below. The Legendary items he had on would lose their worth in an instant, reduced to things that did nothing but take up space in his inventory.
Still, they're too good to throw away.
Clicking his tongue at the waste, Yujun approached the portal—and stopped short of stepping through. Something had just occurred to him.
The Golden Key is still left. Where am I supposed to use this?
The Golden Key in his inventory: the objective item he had gained by destroying gravestones in the Zone 2 cemetery.
Do I just throw it away?
No one had ever successfully cleared Zone 2 on Hell difficulty, so there was no way to know. The system had not told him, either.
Just in case, maybe I should look around for somewhere a key might go.
It was not a decision born of reluctance to take off the Super Novice Set. Absolutely not.
Mm. Absolutely not.
His career as a gamer was far from wasted. Instinct sent up a signal: there would be a place for the Golden Key. It would not be an item for no reason. If it was an item, that meant there was a use for it, in some form or another.
Well. If there isn't, then there isn't.
Spending more time here cost him nothing. Trusting his own sense of things, Yujun searched the area. His whole body ached, a pain like being prodded in every corner with a stick, and he forced himself through it, walking and walking. The arrow the system had displayed was long gone. This was a moment that called for reasonable deduction.
Nothing in this clearing. Even if I dug up the ground, it would take an age.
Then the place he had obtained the Golden Key. Back to the cemetery. Once he decided, he moved quickly. About twenty minutes of walking brought him there: zombies sprawled where they had fallen, traces of skeletons ground to powder, gravestones smashed apart. He combed the graveyard from end to end and found nothing. Then he noticed stones that had not yet been broken.
Should I smash those, too?
He set to it boldly, kicking the gravestones apart one by one. Bang. Bang. It might look brainless, but trying something was the right call. The payoff came quickly. The last gravestone—and from the pit, a staircase leading downward appeared. It had not been there to begin with. The instant the stone shattered and flew, the stairs took shape all at once.
It's actually here?
Most likely they had been set to reveal themselves once every gravestone was destroyed or made to vanish.
And I'm the first to find this, too.
No one had passed Zone 2 to begin with, so that went without saying. Yujun broke into a crooked grin and started down the stairs.