Chapter 17
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Change (3)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The guardian, Geumho, charged madly, radiating the thick bloodlust unique to a beast of prey.
Thud, thud, thud!
The steps of the colossal tiger shook the heavens and the earth.
Hk!
I could think later.
If I didn't equip the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets right this instant, I was dead.
With frantic hands, I opened the metal carrier.
And immediately gripped the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets.
Grrrrrr!
At that moment, Geumho accelerated.
Instantly filling my vision, Geumho raised its massive forepaw high.
Whoooosh!
At this rate, in another 0.1 seconds, I would be turned into mincemeat.
Piiing!
That is, if I hadn't managed to equip the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets in time.
KABOOM!
I raised both arms and blocked its attack.
Holy shit.
Any later and I would have really died.
Just like when I wore the Aegis of the World Tree, power surged through my entire body.
However, there was none of the euphoria that made me feel like I could do anything.
Grrr.
Perhaps enraged that its attack had been blocked.
Geumho bared its sharp fangs and growled.
At the same time, the pressure it exerted began to intensify.
Keuk!
The muscles all over my body screamed.
How the hell is it this strong!
At this rate, I'll be crushed.
I desperately twisted my body.
The special skill [Wildness] engraved on the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets told me how to move.
Hup!
Like I was deflecting the force at an angle using the surface of the gauntlets!
Like this!
KRA-BOOM!
As its paw created a massive crater in the floor, I quickly threw myself backward.
I immediately prepared for the next assault. Another attack was sure to come!
Grrr.
Fortunately, it didn't seem intent on charging at me right away.
It growled, staring at me warily.
It must have sensed that I wasn't easy prey.
Thanks to that, I had some time to think.
Why did Geumho, who should be in the Guardian's Chamber, come all the way to the entrance?
If the settings haven't changed, Geumho's intruder detection range barely extends beyond the Guardian's Chamber.
There's no way it could have detected me this close to the entrance.
Grrr.
And yet, the guardian was here.
The moment I entered the ruins, it had charged me like an arrow.
Why? How?
Could it be that the ruins' settings changed with the remake?
If so, that's the absolute worst-case scenario.
If even minor details like this have changed, all the information I know from the novel becomes less meaningful.
After all, nothing is more dangerous than ambiguous information.
I hope thats not it.
I bit my lip.
It was then.
Kraaaaaang!
As if sensing I'd let my guard down while lost in thought, Geumho lunged at me.
Fortunately, I had [Wildness].
The sharp senses unique to wild beasts allowed me to somewhat predict its attacks.
I quickly ducked, dodging its paw.
Whoooosh
A fierce gust of wind brushed past my head.
But Geumho's ferocious assault had only just begun.
Whoosh Whoosh! KABAM!
Grrrrrrrr!
With its sharp teeth.
With its two forepaws.
It attacked me like a madman.
Even with [Wildness], it was impossible to counter all of these lightning-fast consecutive attacks.
Kraaaaaang!
Chwaaaak!
My equipment started to break from the attacks I couldn't completely dodge.
Puhwak!
Wounds multiplied all over my body.
Keuk!
Fortunately, the pain wasn't too severe.
Probably thanks to an excess of endorphins.
Whoosh, KABOOM!
Still, I could hold on.
I hadn't suffered a fatal wound yet.
But.
This was only a matter of time.
I gritted my teeth.
About 30 seconds. No, maybe 20 seconds left
The time I could wear the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets was a mere minute.
Less than 20 seconds remained.
I had to do something.
If I didn't get out of this situation within 20 seconds, I wasn't just kidding, I would actually die.
Whoosh! Thud!
But with no solution in sight, time slipped away relentlessly.
It was hard enough just to dodge its continuous attacks; there was no convenient way to escape this spot.
Now, only 5 seconds were left.
Damn it.
All I could do was curse inwardly.
I made a mistake.
Even knowing this novel was a remake, I trusted the information too much.
Believing wrong information is more dangerous than having no information at all.
I forgot that.
Still, if I were to make an excuse, I never imagined they would have touched on such minor details like the settings of these ruins.
The fact that, until now, not a single setting had changed except for my own abilities would be another reason.
Its all pointless now.
As I kept moving my body.
I smiled bitterly.
In the end, a single mistake is leading me to my death.
It was then.
Zzzzzzzzzzt!
Sparks flew from the gauntlets on both hands.
Kwraang!?
Startled by the sudden lightning, Geumho backed away.
Keuk.
I could feel the surging power fading away.
[Error! Unknow !]
That meant the end.
The end of the one-minute wear time.
And.
Hah.
The end of my life.
[Error! Chan medum errr ]
My arms were burning.
It was getting hard to endure.
But I held on.
Keuk!
If I threw off the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets here, it would truly be the end.
[Evoltion Raial Trat Boiing Pueblod ]
But a rejection reaction wasn't something I could endure just by wanting to.
[Error Correction Complete.]
Along with the incomprehensible message.
Paaang!
Kuaargh!
The Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets were flung from my hands.
My hands wouldn't move.
Likely due to the burns and pain.
Grrrr!
It was then that Geumho began to move.
It charged at me as if it had been waiting for this very moment.
Its movements?
Strangely, I could see its movements clearly.
There's no way my eyes, returned to the physical abilities of a sub-F-rank civilian, could track Geumho's movements.
And yet, I could see its movements clearly.
Could it be thanks to the [Racial Trait] I got from the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets?
Don't tell me I got the [Blessing of the Beast King]!
If so, there was still hope
Never mind.
But that was just my delusion.
Grrr.
The reason I could see Geumho's movements was simply because it was slowly stalking toward me.
At a speed clearly visible to my eyes.
Very slowly, as if savoring the hunt.
Don't they say a tiger uses its full strength even to catch a rabbit?
Ah. Was that a lion?
I looked up at the ceiling.
This is really the end.
Come to think of it, even if I had been lucky enough to get the [Blessing of the Beast King], there was no way I could beat this thing right now.
Hope.
There was none.
As I stared blankly at the ceiling, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
If a novel I was reading ended like this, I would have cursed it out with every swear word I knew.
An empty laugh escaped my lips.
To be having such silly thoughts at the very end.
The stalking Geumho had arrived right in front of me.
It's really over.
I closed my eyes, bracing for the coming pain.
It's going to hurt, right?
I mean, I'm about to be chewed to bits by those sharp fangs.
Of course, it'll hurt like hell.
Ah. I hate pain.
?
But no matter how long I waited, I felt no pain.
Is it enjoying the sight of me giving up on everything?
I slowly opened my eyes.
Huh?
And I doubted my eyes.
Kyuu?
Geumho was lying on the floor,
its fangs hidden, tilting its head with the cutest expression in the world.
Gya-reu-reung.
Rolling around while hugging the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets with its forepaws.
Excuse me?
Are you a cat?
It rolled on the floor with a look of pure bliss.
As I stood there dumbfounded, wondering what on earth was happening.
Oot!
A sudden pain shot through my thigh. It was a faint ache, different from the sharp pain of my wounds, something that felt vaguely familiar.
This, don't tell me.
I lowered my gaze to my thigh.
Through my tattered clothes, my thigh was clearly visible.
A tiger tattoo?
The newly engraved tattoo was glowing green.
* * *
To put it simply.
The settings of the Golden Sanctuary hadn't changed.
The guardian charging all the way to the entrance was just an unfortunate accident, a coincidence piled on a coincidence.
To think it had detected the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets.
I never expected it.
Who could have possibly predicted that Geumho, the guardian of these ruins, would be connected to the ancient artifact, the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets?
I mean, sure, the names Ferocious Tiger and Geumho sounded somewhat similar...
I scratched the back of my head and looked at Geumho.
Gya-reung.
Geumho was lying on its back, belly up, playing with the Ferocious Tiger's Gauntlets.
The more I looked, the more absurd the sight became.
What are you, a cat?
A tiger half the size of an elephant acting like that
Gya-reung?
Thinking I had called it, Geumho turned its head to look at me.
Then, its eyes sparkling, it charged toward me.
It looked like a cat running to its owner, but
Hey! Stop! Halt!
At my urgent shout, the beast stopped moving.
If that huge body charged at me with that speed, I'd be sent straight to the afterlife.
Kyuu.
As if disappointed that I'd stopped it, it hung its head low.
Don't make that face.
If you get excited trying to be cute and kick out even once, I'm toast. Got it?
Go play with the gauntlets.
Gya-reung.
At my words, Geumho flopped back onto the floor. It stretched out its limbs and rolled around.
It really looks like a noble king.
Sigh.
I can hardly believe this is the same beast that was trying to kill me just a moment ago.
My trait saved me.
I also figured out why Geumho had changed its attitude.
It was mistaking me for a beastman because of the new Beastman racial trait I'd acquired, Boiling Pure Blood.
Geumho, tasked with protecting these ruins from any intruders other than beastmen, had stopped attacking me after judging me to be one of them.
It was truly a stroke of luck.
I can only say that I was extremely lucky.
It's a good trait, too.
I got the exact trait I needed right now.
The effect of Boiling Pure Blood is to infuse the body with limitless vitality.
What this means is,
first, the body's recovery ability increases.
Muscle recovery speed increases, wound healing speed increases, and stamina recovery also increases.
In fact, the wounds all over my body have already started to heal.
That's not all.
Those with this trait experience accelerated growth in their physical abilities.
If this were just a stat-based correction, it would have been meaningless to me, who has no status window.
This trait increases the speed of muscle recovery.
Because it accelerates physical growth through that mechanism, it applies to me just fine.
Of course, there's a downside.
If I don't expend my stamina periodically, there's a chance I could fall into a Berserk status effect.
The blood of beastmen is just that vigorous.
Of course, I just have to make sure not to conserve my stamina.
I guess I'll have to start strength training like crazy from now on.
I now had a reason why I had to do strenuous training, even if I didn't want to.
From now on, I have to dedicate at least an hour a day to exercise.
The day I surpass F-rank isn't far off.
For now, let's finish clearing the Golden Ruins.
Geumho.
Gya-reung?
Can you guide me to the end of the ruins?
I need to grab the ancient artifact sleeping in these ruins.