Chapter 146: Back Attack
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 146: Back Attack
Bearhim's Garden.
A short distance from the pond, behind a giant mushroom.
"Huff... huff..."
Having escaped using Ethereal Blink, Clorence wrapped a bandage around his ankle, then poured a healing potion all over it.
"Urk."
Blood trickled from his tightly bitten lip.
"Where did the others go?" he asked, wiping away cold sweat as the pain subsided slightly.
"Caleb is about eighty meters in that direction. I think he's with Back Attack. Aimus and the dwarf are about one hundred fifty meters that way."
"How do you know?"
"I can hear them. Richard is still in the same spot as before."
"Hoo. Dammit."
Clorence swept back his sweat-drenched hair.
"Haha."
He let out an empty laugh.
He habitually reached into his pocket for a cigarette but hesitated. It was his last one.
"For some reason, I feel like if I smoke this, there really won't be a next time."
"..."
"I'll smoke it after the battle, if I survive. If I die, this cigarette is yours, Yernil."
"Huh?"
"And... I'm sorry."
Clorence smiled self-deprecatingly.
"For what?"
"What I said earlier. That when our two teams were tackling the garden together, I wanted your party to take the lead in facing the dangers."
"..."
"Of course, since you're Avison's benefactors, I'd want to protect you both if I could. But in the Labyrinth, as a party leader, I have no choice. I'm in a position where I have to take responsibility for my party."
Clorence put the cigarette back in his pocket.
"But even that didn't go as planned once the fighting started."
"..."
"In the end, our party was the one that got shattered. Is this my punishment? Haha. Yernil, I have a favor to ask. If I die and Caleb's party survives, could you get Dorothy out?"
"I don't know how to open the iron door."
"I don't either. But that door... I think the Glutton summoned it. The one Dorothy is trapped in."
Clorence unwrapped the bandage. He poured a regeneration potion on his horribly mangled ankle.
He needed at least some of the flesh to regenerate before he could move. Right now, he couldn't budge an inch.
"Richard. It looks like the Glutton cast a spell on him, doesn't it?"
Yernil nodded at Clorence's question.
"He was the strongest among us, both in body and mind."
"He didn't seem to get along with Back Attack."
"I wonder."
Clorence took out a pain relief potion and downed it. That was his third potion already. He felt like he was on the verge of addiction, but he had no choice.
"Maybe it's because they're both from the West. But I..."
Having worked with Richard for a long time, Clorence had a slightly different impression.
"I thought Richard seemed happy to see him."
"Really?"
"He must have his reasons."
"..."
Yernil suddenly jerked her head and let out a sneeze. Achoo!
"You don't have any anti-dust magic."
Clorence opened his memory book.
"Wait a moment."
Clorence, the rich young master, had plenty of magic. Though his spell slots were limited, he could always swap in a useful spell like the Tier 1 utility magic, 'Anti-Dust'.
"Anti-Dust."
Clorence cast the spell, blocking the spores spreading through the air.
Pop!
Another sound, similar to a sneeze, was heard, but it wasn't one.
"A message!"
"It's from Caleb."
Clorence quickly opened the note.
*
The Glutton had crushed the adventurers and scattered them.
Then, it had secured Richard for its frontline.
What was the monster's next move?
The Gardener, 100%.
It came here to recruit him in the first place.
However, since its Void Pressure was likely on cooldown, it might just kill him instead.
Either way, there was something that absolutely could not fall into the Glutton's hands.
'The Fungal Staff.'
I had to get my hands on the Gardener's weapon.
"Can you do it?"
I entrusted Back Attack with a difficult mission.
"I'll try."
I handed Back Attack an Anti-Dust Bracelet.
The plan was this:
First, Back Attack would use Mirror Image to leave a clone here.
Then, wearing the bracelet, he would set out to find the Gardener.
Using invisibility would also be a good idea.
And every 120 seconds, he would use his position swap skill to return to the clone's location.
That way, I wouldn't get hit by the spore infection.
Then, he would use the swap skill again to switch places with the clone and resume his search for the Gardener.
"When using Mirror Image Rogue, there's no limit to the number of swaps. But the swap skill itself has a cooldown."
In other words, he couldn't use it again immediately after swapping. If he made eye contact with the Glutton right after returning to the Gardener's vicinity, he was a dead man.
And in that case, I'd lose the bracelet, putting my own life in danger.
"But it's the only way."
The Gardener was probably on the brink of death, so it was worth trying to 'Steal' the staff from him.
"If you can kill him, that's fine too. But you must not let the Glutton get the staff."
"I'll do my best."
Back Attack cast the new skill he had learned.
Mirror Image.
An afterimage that looked exactly like Back Attack appeared beside him.
The clone could even talk.
"Hello, boss."
"..."
"Man, what a mess. And here I thought we were done after catching that octopus."
The clone plopped down next to me.
"I'll be on my way, then."
Back Attack was off.
*
Even after sending Back Attack, I was busy.
There were a few more things to prepare.
First, Aimus.
"Send Message."
At the last moment, he had grabbed Kudrum and escaped using Musso's Horn.
The two of them were probably together now.
The puppeteer Kudrum had already used up his spare doll, so he should have a mental link available.
[Connect it to Aimus and use Unity Bond.]
It was a Tier 3 skill that allowed the puppeteer to take a portion of the damage and status effects dealt to their combat doll.
Kudrum had been treated with anti-dust magic by Dorothy. By using Unity Bond, he could grant the anti-dust effect to Aimus.
He might have already done so. They were 6th-floor adventurers, after all; they should have that much sense.
[Yernil. This is Caleb.]
Next, I sent a message to Yernil's group.
I didn't know her exact location, but she wouldn't be alone. She was probably with Clorence.
Why?
Because if she weren't, she would have no protection from the spores and would have lost her mind by now.
And the hourglass would have sent me an alert to replace an incapacitated subordinate.
The fact that it hadn't meant Yernil was safe.
[Yernil is with me. I'll get her ready.]
Just as I thought.
A reassuring reply came from Clorence.
Around that time, Back Attack made his first swap.
"Phew! Are you alright?"
"Yes. I'm fine."
"Have you found the Gardener yet?"
"Not yet."
"The Gardener is almost out of health. He won't last a moment if he runs into the Glutton. We have to hurry. It's a race against time."
"Yes, I'm on my way."
He was like a diver, making repeated descents.
Surfacing to catch his breath, then diving back in.
Could Back Attack handle it before the Mirror Image's duration ran out?
If I went with him to save time on the swaps, I'd only slow him down.
My mobility was far too low.
For now, I had no choice but to trust Back Attack and wait.
*
"I'm sorry," Back Attack said.
The clone, that is.
The Mirror Image clone shares a significant portion of the original's memories and psychology.
For a moment, I panicked, thinking something had gone wrong with retrieving the staff.
But that didn't seem to be the case.
"I feel like this kind of thing always happens to our party because of me..."
The clone was just rambling, based on the main body's dominant emotions and memories.
Back Attack was always a tough, easygoing guy, so this mood felt unfamiliar.
Was the real Back Attack still dwelling on what Richard had said earlier?
But the reason our party always runs into such insane, unfair situations probably isn't because of you.
"Of course not. Our bad luck is just a coincidence."
More accurately, it was probably because of me.
"To be honest, back in the West, almost everyone who got involved with me was ruined."
Back Attack added with an awkward expression.
"And there were some I ruined myself."
"..."
"So they pointed fingers and called me a cursed bastard. Ever since I was a kid."
Come to think of it, Richard had said something similar. That he had no tactical sense, that he was a cursed bastard.
"Actually, Aimus-hyungnim doesn't know this, but since we face one life-or-death crisis after another every time we enter the Labyrinth, I honestly feel a sense of responsibility. I..."
Sometimes, a clone is more honest than the original.
"I'm leaving this party after this adventure is over."
*
His story was unhappier than even the average tale from the West.
Like many families, he was born into poverty so extreme that survival itself was a luxury, let alone attention or love.
At five, he came down with a fever.
He's not going to make it.
At his father's firm decision, he was abandoned in the family's yard.
As his mother wept all night in her room, waiting for his last breath, the boy listened to her cries like a lullaby and lost consciousness. But miraculously, he didn't die. He survived.
Instead, something mysterious happened. His father, the head of a family of seven, died suddenly overnight.
The cause of death was choking on the porridge that had been cooked for the boy, but the villagers pointed fingers, saying the boy had sacrificed his father's life to survive.
The cursed child.
That's what they called him in the village. Terrified, his mother kicked him out of the house. He wandered the streets, surviving by eating garbage.
Everyone expected him to die quickly, but the boy surprisingly lived on the streets until he was eight.
One day, his mother, perhaps bothered by the villagers' stares, came to get him.
The boy was overjoyed, but the place his mother took him was not home.
The tanner who lived alone on the outskirts of the village was rumored to be a monster who ate children.
Just one gold coin.
That's what his mother received for selling the boy to the tanner.
Don't you dare leave this house. Please! I'm so scared of the villagers whispering because of you!
The boy didn't leave the house.
A few days later, the tanner brought strong liquor and told the boy to drink it. He refused.
Do you know how much I paid for you!
You paid one gold coin!
A brief shouting match that sounded like a comedy skit ensued, and the tanner whipped the boy mercilessly with his belt. He tore off his clothes. The boy had been quite famous in the neighborhood for his pretty, girl-like looks as a child.
The boy figured that even if his mother hadn't brought him, the tanner would have kidnapped him eventually.
As he was being beaten helplessly by the large man, the boy stabbed him with a fire poker from the hearth. His first murder.
People died more easily than he thought.
My god! Look at that child. He killed a grown man so much bigger than him!
He's a cursed child. He brings misfortune wherever he goes.
He's possessed! How else could a child survive alone on the streets for three years!
Amid the whispered accusations and rumors, the boy left the village.
He found a new place at a sanctuary run by a temple.
The nuns, horrified at the boy's appearance, took him inside.
The boy bathed in warm water.
The nuns cut his hair.
It was a place that offered a roof to shield a weary little lamb from the rain and a bowl of warm soup.
Experiencing love for the first time, the boy was so happy and wanted to repay them somehow.
That's why he went to the mother superior's room late at night, intending to offer her a few gold coins he had secretly taken from the tanner's house.
So, it was a complete accident that he overheard their conversation.
A boy like that seems suitable. Didn't General Jektar say he'd pay 10,000 gold for a child to use as a victory sacrifice?
The boy was so shocked he dropped the coins. The mother superior and the matron rushed out, furious.
The boy ran, but the mother superior caught him. He shoved her with all his might.
The mother superior tumbled down the stairs and died.
The cursed boy, who brought death wherever he went, ran away once again.
By the time he joined a merchant guild in a certain town, he no longer trusted people.
He was ten years old.
While cleaning the guild master's room, he secretly peeked at the sales ledger.
Just as I thought!
The boy saw his own name listed as merchandise. A down payment had already been made, and in four days, his body would be exchanged for the remaining balance. The buyer was a big shot in an underground organization that ran brothels.
The boy ran again. But this time, he didn't just flee. He had learned a few things.
He set fire to the guild's warehouse.
The guild master, whose warehouse had burned to the ground, went bankrupt and was found murdered on a village street a few weeks later.
The world is full of traitors and swindlers.
Humans will always stab you in the back.
So never show them your back.
Always stay behind others. Never trust anyone.
That's what the boy thought.
"So? What's your name?"
He was fourteen, doing odd jobs in a mercenary company.
The Orc Lord who had annihilated that company and captured him, the great Yagnar, asked.
"Back Attack."
Ironically, among the complexities of his past, the name he had given himself seemed to be the only thing that showed the boy's innocence.
"A kid's a kid. What kind of name is Back Attack?"
Yagnar took him in.
"Yagnar! He's a cursed child."
"Let's see which is stronger, my fortune or this child's curse."
"It also goes against our army's policy. Wasn't he just a freeloader working as a servant in Centurion Lizard's house? It's hard to consider him a civilian..."
"But he doesn't seem like the type to hold a grudge against us. I'll classify him as a civilian. Don't touch him."
The Orc Lord entrusted the boy to his loyal subordinate.
"Take him, Richard."
He was a burly orc with a massive greatsword on his back.
"You're responsible for teaching him. Make him pull his own weight in battle within a year."
*
"I got it, boss!"
Back Attack returned, holding the staff.
He seemed completely unaware of the stories his clone had been telling.
"You did well."
I saw now that he had not only the staff but also a pair of giant garden shears.
"Did you kill the Gardener?"
"No? He was already on the verge of death. I just picked them up. He barely put up a fight."
"Thank goodness we were one step ahead of the Glutton."
I took the shears and the staff from him.
"Let's go."
We were going to fill the empty frontline position left by Richard.
Inside the open iron gate.
Next to the collapsed giant mushroom lay the massive corpse of Verdure, its head severed.
I dug out its heart.
And plunged a piece of the broken giant mushroom into it.
"Fungal Horde," I chanted, invoking one of the spells contained within the staff.