Chapter 37
Chapter 37
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Dark Oak Warrior Chief
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The countless Dark Oaks lay scattered across the ground as corpses.
Creatures that could raze a small village if even one or two banded together.
Over ten of them could turn a lower district city into total chaos—those were the Dark Oaks.
“Grooo….”
Now, only a few wounded stragglers remained.
“GRRROOO!”
And one massive figure boasting the largest build, its eyes still blazing with fury: the Dark Oak Warrior Chief.
Wounded and exhausted as it was, the pitiful state wasn’t unique to the Dark Oaks.
“Huff…. Huff….”
The candidates, who had battled through the night as if entranced.
“Urgh.”
They too had merely survived, looking just as ragged as the Dark Oaks.
Yet flames still burned in the candidates’ eyes.
The thrill of accomplishment.
A strange craving born from their first slaughter.
Among them, only one stood out unscathed.
“Alright, this is the last one.”
Sein.
He flashed a grin and issued a command to the candidates.
“Handle the dying small fry yourselves.”
Sein had been just as lost in the thrill of the hunt.
But even then, he had saved the main course for last.
“I’ll take care of that one.”
A hulking brute, the Dark Oak Warrior Chief.
It had displayed combat prowess rivaling dozens of Dark Oaks combined.
Boom!
A perfect embodiment of the shadowkin’s traits.
As it slammed its glaive into the ground once more.
Rumble rumble boom!
The earth shook, cracks spiderwebbing across the surface.
The “blessing” it had unleashed time and again, cornering the candidates.
Rocks and gravel.
Countless fragments of the ground swelled up in an instant.
Boom!
An explosion erupted amid the candidates.
They had to dodge it on their own.
“Urgh!”
The candidates groaned as fresh wounds opened.
But as he had said.
“Once you use that, you can’t fight properly for ten minutes, right?”
Sein spoke calmly, having perfectly blocked the Warrior Chief’s blessing.
Clang!
The longsword he had forged was made from cheap materials; its edge had long chipped away, cracks spidering through the blade.
So.
Shing.
Sein slowly drew Bastion.
Whoosh!
The candidates’ eyes widened at the aura emanating from the holy sword.
For some reason, it made their bodies surge with vitality, or perhaps slowed them down—it was hard to tell.
Only one remained unaffected by it all: Sein.
Step.
He began walking forward slowly.
The moment he had awaited so long.
“Any last words?”
It was time to shove the main dish down its throat.
“Grooo?”
“GRRROOO!”
The Dark Oak Warrior Chief yanked its glaive from the ground and swung it at Sein.
The horizontal slash whipped up winds fierce enough to tear Sein apart.
Thud!
But Bastion met the glaive head-on, and Sein stood firm like an unyielding stake.
A clash of immense power, like ancient trees colliding.
The result?
Crack crack crack—!
Cracks began spiderwebbing across the Warrior Chief’s glaive.
And as Sein’s lips curled up just a fraction more.
Shatter—!
The Dark Oak Warrior Chief’s glaive shattered into worthless fragments.
Through the debris, the Warrior Chief lunged with a fist.
But.
Slice.
A faint cutting sound.
A tiny crack appeared.
Spurt!
The Dark Oak Warrior Chief met the same fate as its glaive.
The first mission from Rasiel had finally ended.
And Sein could see it.
Hum!
A fragment of blessing floating where the Warrior Chief had stood.
It flew toward Sein as he reached out, as if drawn by fate.
In that moment.
“Long time no see.”
Sein found himself in an entirely different space.
It had been a while.
“Life Lantern.”
*
*
*
He had gained quite a bit.
Experience from hunting the Dark Oaks.
The blessing earned for slaying the shadowkin boss monster.
‘Gonna need a lot more.’
As Sein sensed, he seemed different from the other candidates.
Blessings appeared to awaken slowly from mere fragments, growing stronger by gathering more.
‘But mine only work once they’re complete.’
He had to collect countless fragments and assemble them into a full blessing to use it properly.
Perhaps because of the myriad powers he already wielded, or because he was a unique existence—no way to know.
That was the extent of his knowledge on blessings.
After obtaining Bastion, Sein had cut loose without holding back his power for the first time.
In return, he had relearned several forgotten techniques, and could now use them fluidly.
‘Life Lantern.’
And the Life Lantern.
A new perk unlocked there.
It let him inherit portions of his past stats and awakened one special power that mere mana couldn’t imitate.
‘A main quest, after all.’
Rasiel and Demorus’s quests were the main storyline piercing through his entire life.
So it made sense that the rewards along the way were exceptional.
“Uh, hey.”
“Yeah? What?”
One candidate approached.
He looked no better than a beggar.
“Thanks.”
He handed over a potion with words of gratitude.
He wasn’t alone.
Glances and expressions turned toward Sein.
Not the hostility from Rasiel’s garden, but gratitude.
And….
“We wouldn’t have survived without you. Thanks, for real.”
Admiration and awe.
“The genre’s off.”
Sein chuckled at them.
“Isn’t this supposed to be noir?”
“……?”
“You’re all talking like it’s some heartwarming academy story?”
The candidates reacted with confusion but treaded carefully since it was Sein speaking.
Sein ignored it and kept walking.
At last, it came into view.
Vice, the city they had left.
Arriving at the city gates.
“…Huh? What are you lot?”
The guards scowled at the ragged candidates, who looked like escaped slaves from a raided village.
“Something happen nearby?”
Bewildered, the guards blocked their path.
A few sharper ones among them noticed.
Flinch.
The glint in the candidates’ eyes.
The savage gleam of fresh slaughter—it was fortunate they held their tongues.
“…Out of the way.”
“What’d you sa—.”
A few quick guards paled and held back the others just in time.
“They’re candidates!”
The candidates of Demorus had returned.
*
*
*
Cheap melodies filled the air.
Gulp, gulp.
Decent stuff, maybe, but with a foul aftertaste.
“Kya! That hits the spot!”
Still, smiles lit up the candidates’ faces.
They had just wrapped up a grueling battle.
“Ha, clearing the Dark Oak village in a single day. As expected of Demorus’s candidates.”
A feast hosted by the Rolan family, lords of Vice.
There had been a party the night before too, but this was worlds apart.
Not for those departing into battle, but for the victors returning triumphant.
“More booze!”
“Bring the best!”
The hall brimmed with greater joy and cheers.
Candidates who had skipped the first night now raised their glasses proudly.
Bandages wrapped around their bodies, they downed booze and potions, unable to hide their elation.
“This is the taste.”
A greater happiness earned by delaying a day’s joy.
But where there are winners, there are losers.
“…….”
Those who had slept through the first feast could only stew in their emotions, watching the village-clearers.
Their comrades’ feats shone brightly, while theirs were something else entirely.
The treatment they received now was different, and what awaited back at Rasiel would be too.
Dark expressions gripped them; unlike last night, they couldn’t even touch their glasses.
“By the way, where’s that Kindra crew?”
Some noticed Kindra and a few others were missing.
“Probably still lost out there, circling like idiots.”
“They’ll drop dead from shock when they get back.”
Most celebrated their victory over rival candidates.
A few sharper ones, including Ciss’s group, quietly turned their heads.
Their gazes settled on Sein.
They probably knew.
“Kindra’s bunch might not come back at all.”
“Huh? Why?”
“Who knows. Maybe the Dark Oaks got ’em.”
“Bunch of idiots. Gotta pick the right side.”
“…Can’t argue with that.”
Amid all the reactions, Sein sipped his drink alone.
“Tastes like shit.”
Better than Chichiron’s swill, sure, but that was it.
To Sein, who had once drowned in food and drink costing thousands of gold.
The feast’s fare.
“Sein Demorus, I heard you’re a great hero.”
Even Vice’s beauties.
Held no appeal. A seat he wouldn’t normally bother with.
“Gotta enjoy it sometimes.”
One candidate who had cleared the Dark Oaks alongside him approached, thoroughly drunk.
He seemed to muster his courage.
“You think so?”
Sein’s reply was a cold sneer.
“…Sorry.”
“No, I mean it.”
The candidate backed off, intimidated by Sein’s prowess.
But Sein’s smile only deepened.
A seat he didn’t need to attend.
There was a reason he had come.
He scanned the candidates.
“About three have caught on.”
His voice was inscrutable.
‘Thought the genre was wrong.’
He had been baffled by the heartwarming camaraderie among candidates vying for the underworld throne.
But now, attending this feast, he got it.
“Noir it is.”
The food and drink laid out for the party.
“……Huh?”
“Gahk!”
Or was the genre horror?
It was poisoned.