Chapter 1
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Prologue
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Prologue
[Challenge countless monsters, demons, and legends to complete your story.]
This was the last sentence I saw before I lost consciousness.
And it is the one sentence I still cling to.
My journey of slaying monsters and wandering in search of all sorts of rumors began just like that.
And it will continue.
Until the day I finally escape this damn game.
Wandering Mercenary in an Open World (1)
The red haze from the campfire pushed back the darkness. Staring blankly at the dancing flames, Luon pulled a piece of dried jerky from his coat and tossed it into his mouth.
Damn, this is tough. The jerky, dried with only salt and no spices, was no different from rubber. The foul, gamey smell that wafted up his nose was irritating too. The more he chewed, the more he longed for the 6,000-won jerky he used to see hanging in convenience stores. Back then, he'd grumbled that even that was too expensive.
Luon still missed the twenty-six years he had lived in South Korea. A life of gulping down beer while chewing on savory snacks, not this gamey jerky.
Instead of fading with time, the memories only grew clearer, and Luon clenched his teeth.
“*Sob, sniff, sob...*”
An unidentifiable sob broke Luon out of his reverie.
The eerie sobbing, so out of place in the dead of night, would have made an ordinary person's hair stand on end, but Luon casually brushed himself off and stood up. In fact, a faint smile played on his lips. *Right, you've taken the bait.*
“*Sob, sniff...*”
Muffling his footsteps, he approached the source of the sound and found someone squatting under a large tree.
Her face was buried in her drawn-up knees, making it impossible to see, but her long, flowing hair and slender wrists and ankles suggested she was a woman.
Instead of offering a cliché 'Are you okay?', Luon drew the sword from his hip. The blade glinted coldly in the moonlight. Regardless, the woman’s tears showed no sign of stopping.
“*Sob, sniff, sob...*”
*Oh? Trying to keep up the act, are we?*
Luon chuckled and slipped his other hand into his coat. The moment his fingertips touched the firm hilt of a dagger, he thrust his hand forward. The dagger sliced through the air, just moments from piercing the woman's forehead.
*Clang!*
A sound, unbelievable for a clash of flesh and steel, echoed through the forest. The woman's slender arm had deflected the dagger. At the same time, the sobbing abruptly ceased.
It was Luon who broke the sudden silence.
“Why don't you drop the pathetic act?”
“Kyaaaaaaaah!”
With a piercing shriek, the woman shot to her feet, revealing the face that had been hidden by her knees. Her skin was shriveled like a mummy's, and from her empty, rat-eaten eye sockets, maggots fell in clumps.
Luon's brow furrowed slightly at the gruesome sight. *Times like this, having good eyesight is a pain.*
“Kyaaaaaah!”
The woman—no, the monster—shrieked again and charged. A curse embedded in the scream pressed down on Luon, but he casually dispelled the formless power as if brushing off dust.
Flailing its long limbs, the monster closed the distance in an instant and swung its hand. Luon dodged the creature's sharp claws with a simple turn of his head and swung his pre-drawn sword upward.
“Kieeeeeek!”
As the monster shrieked, having lost an arm, Luon kicked it hard in the chest and immediately swung his sword again. The monster lost its balance, and its other arm was severed. Next came the chest. And finally, the head.
In an instant, the monster's dismembered body collapsed to the ground.
“Not bad.”
Luon smiled, feeling a sense of elation welling up from deep within. The creature had given a decent amount of experience.
Luon spotted something sparkling within the monster's corpse, which had turned to gray dust like briquette ash, and reached for it. After pocketing a heavily rusted necklace, he rummaged around, hoping for more, but found nothing else of value. There was only a tattered piece of clothing crawling with maggots. *This is why I hate wraiths. You go through all the trouble of killing one, and all you get are the items they wore in life.*
Luon spat on the ground once and turned away without hesitation.
***
“Welcome in!”
At the jingle of the bell, the innkeeper, Hobson, looked up and greeted the customer. A guest this early usually meant a good day's earnings, so the innkeeper beamed at the rare, fortunate arrival.
“Looks like you've been walking all night. How about some warm milk?”
“I'll have a light meal as well. Something soft, if you have it.”
“Been eating nothing but jerky for the past few days, have you?”
“My jaw's about to fall off.”
The innkeeper chuckled as if he'd expected as much and headed into the kitchen. Luon slumped into a chair and stretched. He felt a little stiff, but that was all. Thanks to consistently investing in his stamina stat with every level-up, it had been a long time since he'd felt tired from just a long walk.
After killing the wraith, Luon hadn't found the small village nestled by the hill until dawn, and he had just entered the inn, from whose chimney smoke was billowing.
The inn's interior looked old, but the owner had clearly taken good care of it, giving it more of a vintage feel than a dilapidated one. Luon quite liked the atmosphere.
A short while later, the innkeeper placed a steaming plate and a cup in front of Luon.
It was warm milk and a thick, sweet-smelling pie. When he poked the pie, red jam oozed out appetizingly.
“That's our most popular item. Sells out before you can even get a look at it after lunch.”
As if to prove the innkeeper's confident words, the pie was absolutely superb. As Luon was smiling with satisfaction at his first proper meal in a while, a group of people descended from the upper floor with a low murmur.
The shaggy-haired man leading the way down the stairs fixed his gaze on Luon, who was eating.
“Hoh?”
Broad shoulders and a sturdy build. A bow slung over his back and a sword at his hip. Taking in Luon's uncommon appearance, the shaggy-haired man exchanged a few words with his companions before finally approaching Luon's table.
The shaggy-haired man sat down opposite Luon and asked.
“A mercenary?”
Luon, who had been savoring the softness of the pie, frowned.
“Can't you see I'm eating?”
“My apologies if I was rude.”
“If you know that, I'd appreciate it if you'd leave.”
“Interested in working together? I know of a rather tempting job.”
*What kind of person apologizes for being rude and then just keeps talking?* In this absurd situation, Luon stared blankly at the man, deciding he might as well hear him out.
The shaggy-haired man took his silence as a sign of agreement and curled his lips into a smile.
“There's a notorious banshee in this area.”
Luon's indifferent expression turned subtle. *A banshee? I think I know what he's talking about.*
“It's an old one, so it seems pretty powerful. Strong enough to make a few reckless newbies scream themselves to death, I hear. Well, thanks to that, the bounty has nearly tripled, which is good for us. As you've probably guessed by now, my companions and I are planning to take that banshee down. But seeing what happened before, it's true we're a little uneasy. You look like you live by the sword too... How about it? Join us on the banshee hunt. The more, the merrier, right? We'll split the reward equally, so don't you worry.”
By the time the shaggy-haired man finished, Luon was already thinking about something else.
*Yes, free money.*
He'd been disappointed with no gains other than the old necklace, but to think there was a bounty on it! It was a great stroke of luck for a kill that hadn't taken much effort.
Of course, banshees were indeed powerful spirits. But that was only if one was defenseless against their screams or couldn't resist them.
This wasn't an issue for Luon, who possessed 'Resistance to All Debuffs'—one of the protagonist's perks from character creation.
“So, what do you say?”
the shaggy-haired man asked in a suggestive tone. The previously silent Luon replied.
“By any chance, is the banshee's keepsake a necklace? A rusted one, with a small green gem on it.”
The shaggy-haired man's brow furrowed slightly.
“That's right. That's the exact description of the item needed as proof. What? Did you know all along and just pretend not to?”
“No. This is the first I'm hearing of it.”
“Then how do you know about the necklace? That doesn't make sense.”
The shaggy-haired man raised an eyebrow. From the way he was straining his bulging eyes, he clearly thought Luon was lying.
Not wanting to give a lengthy explanation, Luon simply reached into his coat and pulled out the necklace he'd gotten from killing the wraith.
“Huh? Don't tell me that's…”
Luon spoke to the man, who was staring at the necklace with a shocked expression.
“That banshee. I just killed it on my way here.”