Kitty, What on Earth Is This Guy #4
Kitty, What on Earth Is This Guy #4
There were two of them.
Both facedown on the floor, doing nothing but breathing. The ancient sages said: see one cockroach in your house, there's a hundred more hiding.
Spot a monster here, and it's safe to assume more of the same are scattered all over this ruin.
So I took them out quietly.
—Creeping closer.
Like playing a game when I was a kid.
I silenced my footsteps, sneaking up stealthily.
"Grrah... grr..."
"Grr..."
Vile white monsters that did nothing but breathe. Their shape was a cross between a human and an emaciated, giant, vicious hound.
I got right behind the one with its back turned, raised my sword high like I was scything through a sheaf of straw, and slashed down diagonally.
—Thwack!
A truly crisp strike.
"Grruk."
The thing keeled over in two pieces, none the wiser.
"Grruk?!"
The one beside it shot upright just like a person, jaws gaping wide, and lunged at me—
"Too slow, dipshit."
From the exact same stance I used to cut the first one, I twisted toward the attacker, slashed upward, and split it clean from belly to crown.
—Shluck.
The corpse crumbled in an instant.
"That was easy."
This Whiter—never seen one before, but its combat power is low-rank monster level. Reflexes were decent, but the actual pounce was slow. Sure, that's by my standards, but I don't think they'll be a problem.
Now, let's check the bodies.
Except.
"Huh?"
All of a sudden—
—Scatter.
The monster's corpse started disintegrating fast, like ashes blowing away!
"Hey, you bastard—!"
The body's decomposing?
In the blink of an eye, it had completely crumbled to powder and scattered.
All that was left was a tiny white pebble.
"The hell?"
What is this?
I've never seen a monster vanish like this. You don't even get a corpse. Normally, contractors haul monster corpses off, process them, and use them for equipment materials.
That's how the economy works. But without a corpse, then—
"Worthless bastards aren't even worth the work."
Literally nothing but pests.
Still, something did remain.
—Pick up.
I grabbed the white stone left behind, about half the size of a gonggi pebble. What is this? Holding it, I almost feel like I'm sensing some kind of energy.
—Fwoosh.
Then the little flame wrote a word before my eyes.
[Magic stone.]
"A magic stone? Hey. You. VP? Can you communicate with me?"
I asked, but no answer.
Seems like this flame thing is just a machine that performs set tasks.
Anyway.
If it's called a magic stone, maybe it's actually useful. Doesn't look dangerous, so I'll pocket it.
I stashed the loot in my pocket and resumed my search. The place might be a ruin, but plenty of the buildings still had columns and, busted or not, actual roofs, so I had to go inside and look.
Nothing worth taking.
I headed for the next building. Half-destroyed but relatively intact. Of course, the door was long gone. The moment I stepped inside without knocking—
"Grruk!"
Must've been lying in wait. A Whiter sprang at me, jaws wide, like it was trying to wrap me in a hug.
"This prick."
Obviously, cheap ambushes like this aren't any threat to me. I was ready for it long ago.
—Swing.
The General Sword drew a clean arc, a line appeared connecting its left ribs to its right shoulder, and the thing split apart, vanishing and leaving behind only a magic stone.
"Nothing to it."
I searched deeper inside... and spotted a lot of what looked like furniture. Rotted, crumbling, coated in dust—but it wasn't hard to tell what it was.
"So this was a pretty advanced species."
Seeing drawers, desks, and stuff like that, I'd say their civilization was pretty similar to humans'.
"Oh."
While I was looking around, I found a nearly disintegrated rug. I grabbed it immediately and headed back outside.
—Flap!
I wrapped it around myself and climbed to the top of the tallest column. A kind of camouflage. This should do.
So I kept observing, and—
—Scan.
Whiters perched all over the place came into view... Aren't there a lot of them? Just the ones I can see at a glance number in the dozens. But weirdly enough, every single one was facedown on the ground, just breathing. No idea if this is their sleeping time, but as long as I don't get spotted, I figured I could get through without a fight.
My destination is that old castle beyond the hill anyway.
Loot is unclear except for this magic stone I have zero intel on, so avoiding combat is the better play.
Right then.
—Flutter!
Something caught my eye in the sky.
"...?"
The fuck is that?
No kidding, it's a real monster. A white oval body, grotesque wings attached—and its torso was studded all over with black bead-like things that had to be eyes.
[Whiter.]
[Watcher Type.]
So even that thing has a name.
"..."
I kept my head under the rug and waited for it to pass. While I waited, I thought:
These bastards.
Every last one of them is a monster I've never seen before.
Yet Void Princess was feeding me intel as if she knows all of them, and she sent me on an errand to find some item somewhere in this land.
"Just what..."
Questions swirling, I climbed down from the column.
—Thud.
With a superhuman's superior vision, I'd roughly mapped out the Whiters' positions. From now on, avoid combat and infiltrate the old castle as fast as possible.
* * *
Fast.
—Pat-pat-pat.
I crossed the ruins with minimal footfalls. I picked routes free of Whiters, and when I had no choice but to meet them, I headed for spots with only one or two.
But.
"..."
As long as I didn't get right up on them and make noise, the Whiters just stayed facedown on the ground. They made zero effort to move.
"What the hell are these things?"
That made crossing the distance simple. Felt like an easy jog. And like that, I arrived at the old castle beyond the hill.
"Whoa."
Busted up, but it's a pretty damn cool old castle.
—Fwoosh.
The little flame bobbing beside my head flickered, signaling that this was the place.
Since the place is half-collapsed, infiltration routes are plentiful. The ramparts are ruined and the castle itself is half-destroyed. Still, since I'm not exactly an invited guest, a side entrance is probably better than the main gate, right?
I circled the old castle briefly, then lightly jumped, grabbed the wall's masonry, and climbed. Superhuman strength. Scaling a wall like this is just playing around.
—Leap!
At the top, I hopped lightly and landed on the ramparts.
"..."
There were a few Whiters on the wall.
"Grruk?"
—Slish!
They never noticed my approach, and then they were just a handful of magic stones.
Easier than I ever imagined.
"Die."
—Stab!
"Grruk?!"
The rest met a similar end. Creep up slowly, stab them through the head with a sword, done. Nothing to it at my level.
I ambushed and mopped up the Whiters on the ramparts like that, then jumped over to the section of the castle roof that connected to the wall.
—Leap.
I moved across the rooftop, then jumped again toward the spot where the half-destroyed structure had exposed a corridor.
"I'm in."
Full-on abuse of superhuman physical abilities: successful unlawful entry into someone else's castle.
"Heh heh heh."
A weird satisfaction crawled through my brain. Anyway. This castle looked pretty well-made. Just looking at this corridor, what's the word.
"Reeks of humans."
The floor must've originally been carpeted, and the walls of the corridor looked like they'd had candle sconces installed.
"The hell is this? Where am I?"
To think an alien civilization would be this similar to humans... While I was thinking that, I checked the flame flickering beside my head.
—Blink-blink!
It was flashing away, like this really was the spot.
[Nearby.]
It even kindly displayed words in front of my eyes. Then it mimed moving in one direction, flickering wildly like a candle in a gust of wind.
Looking closely, the direction it's pointing is below.
So I just need to head to a lower floor.
"..."
Let's see... I'm a superhuman. No need to bother finding stairs, right? Besides, this isn't Earth. Nobody's gonna hold me accountable for a little property damage to this castle.
—Spin.
I twirled my sword lightly, flipping it into a reverse grip.
"Enchant."
Coating the tip with mana, I stabbed it deep into the floor.
—Thunk.
The tip sank through the floor like I was jamming a plastic knife into clay. About here? The blade punched through the ceiling of the floor below. Once I confirmed that, I traced out a square like I was drawing a shape—
—Boom.
The neatly cut rectangle of floor crashed down into the level below.
—Leap.
I immediately jumped down after it, scanning my surroundings as I landed.
"Nothing here. Hey, flame. This floor?"
—Fwoosh!
The flame kept pointing downward.
I repeated the same method.
* * *
Eventually, I reached the basement.
A space where no light entered. I'd obviously anticipated this and bought a lamp, so no problem. I hooked it onto a buttonhole of my uniform jacket and attached the lamp to that—made it decently easy to see.
I moved in that state.
—Fwoosh!
"Beyond this wall?"
The faint flame that had been quietly following me started throwing a fit, gesturing toward the wall. Judging by how it was acting, I didn't need to go any deeper underground.
—Vrrrrm.
I pushed my sword in again and cut out a section of the wall.
—Boomf.
Gave it a light kick and shoved it over.
"Oh-ho. A secret room?"
Something that looked a lot like a secret room appeared. I checked inside—pretty plain for a secret room. A stone darkroom. I started searching while the flame kept having its fit.
"Whoa?!"
A treasure chest...!
There is a treasure chest!
"Wait, the thing you sent me to find was a treasure?!"
You crazy Void Princess!
You hired me for a treasure hunt!
—Slish!
I immediately beheaded the lock and carefully pried the lid open. A brilliant yellow radiance burst out from inside.
"Oh!"
One look and you could tell it was a rare, precious item.
A fist-sized, teardrop-shaped chunk of gold, its surface intricately inlaid with all sorts of pretty gems carved with master-level craftsmanship.
From the design alone, it's got the vibe of a dream-jewel item from a girls' manga, but if it's made of real precious metal, that's a different story. To think something like this was hidden in an old castle... Wait. Isn't this also an otherworldly item?
If so, this might be rare metal!
"Acquired by Kim Geun-cheol. This is my property now."
I cracked a light joke as I examined the treasure I'd grabbed.
But then—
—Vrrrrm.
"Hm?"
I felt some kind of power from within the treasure.
"This power...?"