Find the Golden Compass (3)

The place I'd been transported to looked like something straight out of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a Western. There was no one else around, just a handful of ramshackle buildings standing on a barren stretch of earth.

Just as I heard, then.

Kurun — who, according to Braust, dragged people into his own domain to fight them. And anyone pulled into that domain was forced into a fight they couldn't possibly win.

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Can I really not use any skills?

I tried summoning a monster, but nothing happened — as if the skill itself had never existed.

Where is he?

Kurun had brought me here, but maybe he was still watching from somewhere. I scanned the surroundings. There was no sign of him.

That White Dragon brat didn't come along.

I wondered if he'd come back to his senses yet. Once I got out of here, I was going to have to give him a piece of my mind. Couldn't even hold himself back from eating that food… Sure, he'd saved my life before, but if this was going to be a regular thing, we had a problem.

I was taking my time looking around when Kurun finally revealed himself.

"You didn't actually think you could kill my people and just walk away, did you?"

"Of course not. You're the one I came for."

"What? Hahahaha!"

Kurun laughed as he pulled a gun from inside his coat. It was a revolver — the kind you'd only ever see in a Western like this.

He called this a duel, but he's the only one packing a gun?

I couldn't use skills, and he had a firearm. This felt more than a little unfair. Kurun looked like he'd been built specifically to fight in this environment. I drew my knife and held my ground.

My body's heavy.

I could feel it — my stats had definitely been reduced. Compared to before, it felt like I was carrying steel rebar strapped to every limb.

"So why the hell are you after me? Why'd you kill my men?"

"Because I don't like the way you people operate."

"The way we operate?"

Kurun looked genuinely puzzled, as if he couldn't imagine what they'd done wrong. Just from what I knew — the incident at Gopchang Alley, and the horrific things they'd done to the elves. And those were only the two I was aware of. There was no telling how much more they'd been up to.

"What, you trying to play the saint now?"

"The saint?"

"Yeah. The world's like this now. What's so wrong with acting in your own interest?"

"There are basic principles a person ought to live by!"

"Ha. That's rich."

Kurun snorted, dismissing everything I'd said, and leveled his gun at me.

"Those 'principles' of yours? That's the kind of talk people have when the world's still safe. Look around. If we don't get stronger by any means necessary, the monsters are going to kill us."

Honestly, he wasn't wrong. I even agreed with him, to a point. Nobody was coming to save us. In this world, you had to protect your own life — and in that process, whatever methods you used didn't matter. Why? Because there was no government left to stop you.

The truth was, we'd only been able to live comfortably because a government existed, because we'd been inside the bounds of the law. Now that the world had become a lawless wasteland, whether you followed the old laws or not was a personal choice.

"In the end, in this world, the strong are the law."

"Yeah. That's right."

What Kurun said — that the strong become the law. I honestly couldn't deny it. That was why Kurun and those others were staking their lives on getting stronger. This world had become a place where if you were strong enough, you could do anything. A world where the strong ruled everything. A world where you could have whatever you wanted.

"Why don't you join us? You look pretty strong."

"Join you?"

"Yeah. Once we find the 'item' we're looking for, getting stronger won't even be a challenge."

"An item…"

What were these people even looking for? What could they possibly be after that would make getting stronger that easy?

"What is it, exactly?"

"So you're considering it?"

"No. I'm not."

I understood where they were coming from. But even so — this wasn't the way. I didn't want to get stronger like that. It was obvious what would happen if I did. I'd stop trusting people. I'd end up unable to believe in anyone but myself. Never knowing when someone might turn on you, living in constant fear — that was the kind of life waiting down that road.

"Well, that's too bad. Guess you'll have to die here."

With that, Kurun aimed his revolver at me. He was done talking.

Bang!

A bullet flew straight at my head. I watched it come and knocked it aside with my knife.

"Oh? You deflected that?"

Kurun stared at me, clearly surprised. And he had every reason to be — my skills were sealed, my stats reduced, and I'd still blocked his attack with nothing but a knife.

"This is nothing."

"Alright. Maybe I shouldn't take you so lightly."

That one exchange was enough to put him on guard. Even with all those nerfs, I still had stats close to his own. He put serious distance between us, backing away, and showed no intention of closing it again. From his perspective, I looked like a close-range fighter. His reaction made sense.

Yeah, I figured he'd do this.

I'd already heard about Kurun's abilities from Braust. Braust had said he hadn't wanted to listen to Kurun at first. But with his stats gutted, his skills sealed, and Kurun attacking from range — plus what he'd heard in the prophecy — he'd decided to cooperate. Thanks to that, I'd gotten a decent picture of Kurun's abilities and had time to prepare a countermeasure.

From a distance, Kurun opened fire, attacking me with his gun.

Ting! Ting!

I was lucky enough to have a shield, so I thought I could block his shots — but his attack power was considerable.

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Crackle!

The shield's cracking.

His attacks were stronger than I'd expected. Even without this trapping ability, he seemed like he was among the top-tier. And this place he'd created was designed to lock in his victory.

But then again…

My skills might have been sealed, but it looked like my special abilities still worked. Kurun was clearly rattled when I suddenly vanished.

"Wh… how? All skills should be sealed!"

He scanned the area, on high alert, searching for my vanished form. Then he pulled something from his coat — the same item Arin had used on me. The one that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠dispelled Invisibility.

Boom!

My Invisibility was stripped away. Apparently deciding I had too many strange abilities, he resolved to finish this fast. The moment I reappeared, he aimed his revolver and activated a skill.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bullets came flying at me. Dodging them looked impossible. And my shield was already in bad shape. If I tried to block with it, it would shatter, and I'd take a serious wound.

A moment of life or death. But I didn't panic. Invisibility had only been a way to buy time.

A golem appeared before my eyes. It took the incoming bullets in my place.

How did I summon a golem? With skills sealed, I shouldn't have been able to. But I had something — the Skill Recipe Book I'd received from an event.

And the skill I'd created with that recipe book was this:

Of course, crafting that skill with the recipe book had been days of genuine hell. It demanded the most bizarre materials, and I'd spent a huge amount of time running all over the place collecting them. But it was a skill worth that much. Kurun wasn't the only one who might have the ability to seal skills. Given how heavily I relied on summoning the monsters I'd consumed, I needed at least one skill like this.

It would have been even better if I could unseal all skills at once, but that one just wouldn't craft. Even a recipe book had its limits, apparently.

"What the hell?! How are you using skills?!"

Between the Invisibility earlier and the monster summon now, Kurun couldn't believe I was using skills in this place.

"That's none of your business, is it?"

With the golem as the vanguard, I summoned several more monsters. Realizing how badly the tables had turned, Kurun started pleading.

"W-wait! Spare me and I'll give you whatever you want!"

"I'll just take it myself."

Thud! Thud!

The golem closed in on Kurun. Maybe it remembered him — the one who'd woken it, then slipped through the door without a fight. As if punishing him for it, it brought a massive fist down on Kurun.

Crash!

Kurun managed to block the first hit. But that was all he could do. Even with his abilities buffed, the golem's stats hadn't been nerfed. And it wasn't just the golem.

A swarm of monsters, and me. Under the barrage of simultaneous attacks, Kurun could barely even defend.

Thud! Crash! Thud! Crunch!

He only blocked a few hits before his guard completely collapsed. And in that moment, the golem brought its fist down on Kurun's head.

Crunch!