That's All for Now
That's All for Now
"Mm..."
As her consciousness transferred elsewhere, a strange floating sensation washed over her.
Opening her eyes inside the capsule, Ha-neul drew a sharp breath.
"Huhk...!"
She had been logged out in a truly terrible situation.
No matter how strong Yor was, his opponent was a monster among monsters, well over level 170.
At a bare minimum, a Knight Commander from the Empire would have to come just to even make an attempt against that thing.
But she had died and been forcibly logged out while fleeing from such a creature.
She could die and simply reconnect. Yor, however, was an NPC—he couldn't.
If he died, he would be permanently erased from the world. And that was truly the worst possible outcome.
"No, no...!"
Anxiety crept up on her.
Her heart began pounding furiously, as if she had been sprinting.
Just in case, she tried opening the capsule again to reconnect, but as expected, there was no way it would work.
Ha-neul was stuck waiting for three days, no matter what.
Because of that, her anxiety only climbed higher.
How she could feel this anxious over a mere game character... Honestly, even she found it remarkable, but she couldn't help it.
Emotions weren't easily controlled by nature.
The restless Ha-neul called her financier and younger sibling, Chae-rin.
She knew a game character had been injured, but Yor seemed to be in danger right now—could Chae-rin check on him?
-No way, is that real? Okay, I'll check right away.
Chae-rin answered the phone, startled, and accepted Ha-neul's request.
With that, Ha-neul could at least confirm the outcome.
But her worry didn't subside easily.
So she looked at the night sky and prayed that he would survive safely.
*
Swish—! Boom—! Crunch—!
The advantage of fighting large monsters.
Each individual attack was big, making it easy to predict.
The creature was cunning, but it couldn't put feints into the attacks themselves.
Since that massive body of his meant any tricks would be exposed in an instant anyway.
So his attacks were direct and unambiguous.
Crrrrack—!!!
... The downside being, each and every hit was absurdly powerful.
This thing could shatter a tree like snapping a dry reed.
Regeneration or not, if I took a direct hit from those front paws, I might just die.
'... Even so.'
I thought as I dodged his attacks.
'This is manageable.'
It wasn't an impossible fight.
The attacks were at least predictable, and fast as they were, I could dodge them in time.
I could hold my ground against this monster too.
Of course, it wasn't easy. Every time I dodged an attack, it felt like walking on thin ice.
My nerves burned away, bit by bit.
With every nerve focused solely on evasion, the fatigue was no joke. My breathing grew rougher, as if my stamina had begun to wear down.
'But this is still nothing.'
Still, I smiled.
Years ago, when I first encountered him, I couldn't even dream of facing him like this.
Back then, a string of lucky breaks let me wound his flank, but I had been on the verge of death by the time I pulled it off.
Compared to that time, this was a far better situation.
Whether he had weakened or I had grown, I couldn't say. But it was good news regardless.
'The problem is how to actually land an attack...'
Fortunately, an opportunity came quickly.
"Grrr!"
Abruptly, the creature twisted his body and lashed his tail like a whip.
Since clawing at me wasn't working, he chose an unconventional attack.
And it was a fairly sound choice. Focused only on his front paws, I couldn't react in time.
The attack range was simply too wide to begin with.
'Too late to dodge.'
I hurriedly raised my spear. If I couldn't dodge, I at least had to block.
An instant later, a crushing mass slammed into me.
Bang—!
"Ngh!"
A groan escaped me unbidden. Just because it was a tail didn't mean I could dismiss its force.
A tail swung like a whip was a lethal weapon in its own right. My body, unable to overcome the mass, was dragged along behind the tail and sent flying.
Whooong!
The fortunate part was, at least it beat getting smashed by the front paws.
And the creature's tail was still a body part, in the end.
Cough. Blood trickled from my mouth. That meant the inside of my body had been injured.
But I ignored it and coated the spear blade with the blood trickling from my mouth.
What I wanted was sharpness.
I wanted a blade hard and sharp enough to cut through anything.
With the transformation complete, I immediately swung the spear at the creature's tail.
Shhk—!
"Groooar!"
With a chilling sound, a section of the creature's tail was severed. A length of tail roughly the thickness of my upper body collapsed onto the ground, limp.
The severed portion wasn't much. Barely two feet long.
All I had cut off was the very tip of the tail.
But it was clearly a serious wound. A body part had been amputated, after all.
Having injured his right foreleg and now his tail, the creature hastily widened the distance.
Feline golden eyes glared at me.
I spat out the remaining saliva in my mouth and spoke.
"Want to try some more? I can keep going."
No, actually, I can't.
It's getting pretty tough, so how about we call it here, you and me?
My true feelings were the exact opposite, but I couldn't let him see that.
The moment I showed weakness, he would charge at me viciously again.
Pretending not to be struggling, I projected fighting spirit toward him.
Right now, many thoughts would be racing through the creature's head.
An injury of this degree was nothing to him, in truth, but considering the creatures in the deep layer, turning back was the right move.
Pursuing prey was now more of a loss for him.
"... Grrr."
Thankfully, the creature was a rational animal.
He snarled once, then began walking back into the deep layer.
I silently glared at his retreating form.
"..."
As long as I remained in this forest, the day would come when we met again.
And there was a high probability we would clash again then. I hoped that, when that time came, I could set the funeral table for him.
After the creature had completely vanished from sight, I let out a small sigh.
"Hoo..."
I had survived, somehow. Now it was time to go home.
*
"... Ah! Yor!"
The first thing Yor saw upon returning was Chae-rin, pacing anxiously near his cave.
Apparently, she had rushed over the moment she heard Ha-neul's story.
She scurried over to Yor and checked his condition for a moment, then let out a sigh of relief.
"Phew, thank goodness you're safe. I was so shocked when my sister told me your life was in danger..."
"It was dangerous, but... well, I'm fine now."
Yor reassured Chae-rin with those words. Chae-rin's eyes briefly drifted to somewhere behind Yor.
"But... what's that?"
"Ah, this? Spoils."
Yor had brought back Noho's tail.
He hadn't won, but it felt wasteful to just leave it behind.
And in a sense, this was food too. A nourishing health tonic, at that.
Medicinal herbs in the deep layer weren't limited to plants.
Creatures thickly steeped in Demonic Energy, like that one, could themselves serve as elixirs.
And Noho, the master of this forest, would certainly qualify as an elixir.
'Tiger meat's a first for me.'
Well, it'd taste fine, probably. Thinking that, Yor shoved the creature's tail into the storehouse for now.
Since it was late, Chae-rin confirmed Yor's safety and immediately departed.
She'd been convalescing to begin with, so she couldn't stay long anyway.
Three days passed like that.
This time, Ha-neul came to his cave.
"Yor! You really are safe!"
"Ah, uh—"
Squeeze.
And immediately wrapped him in a tight embrace.
Even though Chae-rin had told her he was unharmed, she had suffered mentally the whole time.
Hearing it and seeing it with your own eyes were different things, after all.
Whether her emotions spilled out because of that, Ha-neul acted before she knew it.
"... Uh, could you let go?"
"... Huh? Ah!"
Luckily, that awkward moment didn't last long.
Because Ha-neul came to her senses shortly after. He could see her face was slightly reddened.
She seemed embarrassed herself.
Come to think of it, he didn't recall her ever having such an intense emotional shift before.
'Well, that just means she cared that much.'
Yor thought, and smiled slightly.
Maybe because it was the first time someone had worried about him like this—he felt a little apologetic, and also grateful. Either way, it wasn't a bad feeling.
Anyway, with this, the deep-layer expedition came to an end.
It had been dangerous, but he had achieved his original objectives regardless.
He had roughly gauged his own skill, and while it wasn't medicinal herbs, he'd obtained a tiger tail good for the body.
Several more days passed like that.
Another new moon arrived, and Yor endured Berserk B.
Then, the day after enduring the berserk condition, he heard new tidings.
The news was that the 66th-ranked Altar of Kimaris had been destroyed.
This battle had ended in victory for the knights.
However, one thirteen-year-old Demonkin had appeared.
That Demonkin was said to have killed a total of 120 people—knights, adventurers, civilians, and others combined.
With no time to rejoice over the victory, the nations began preparing for the next Demon Advent.