Chapter 25

We run through the darkness.

I flip open the compass to check the direction from time to time, and do my best to run like crazy.

“Groooooooowl!”

Ghouls, skeletons and other such monsters keep blocking the way, but they’re too slow to cause any problems.

But the same would be true for our pursuer.

Pit-a-pat pit-a-pat pit-a-pat! Go our footsteps.

Has it been about five minutes?

That psychopath bitch must’ve been slow to finish her looting.

That’s the lucky part.

If we hadn’t been dressed like rookies, that bitch would’ve given up on the loot and came after us straight away.

But this also proves that she has the means and the confidence to catch us even with such a long head start.

Still, at least that’s bought us a little bit of time.

“Bjorn, isn’t that the mark?”

Good news keeps coming.

Collapsed stone buildings are everywhere, here in the Deadlands.

Every time I’d passed one, I’d marked it.

So I could find my way back to the first floor portal later.

“This way!”

Although I already knew we were in the vicinity, we come upon it earlier than expected.

Maybe I got lucky –

“Who are you!”

Damn, I didn’t mean to raise a flag.

Ainar and my feet halt at the same time.

Because we’ve encountered another group of adventurers.

No, in a way, isn’t this better?

Pillagers are natural enemies of adventurers.

If we explain the situation and offer appropriate compensation, we might even be able to get their help.

“Barbarian?”

The group of adventurers who suddenly appeared in the dark, point their weapons at us and tilt their heads.

They are four in number.

Everyone is human, and the equipment looks at least twice as good as ours.

Humans are hard to trust, but we probably have no choice here.

“We’re being chased by a pillager. We request help.”

“So you guarantee that you are not pillagers?”

“I swear on my honour as a warrior. Everything I say is true.”

Contrary to my promise with the fairy, this time I offer my warrior’s oath unasked…

Surprisingly, this oath works everywhere.

A bald-headed guy, who seems to be the leader among the four, thinks for a moment before speaking.

“If we catch the pillager, we will take all the rewards. Do you agree?”

“Of course.”

“Good.”

As the bald-pated guy beckons, the other adventurers lower their weapons.

Obviously, this wouldn’t have been as easy if I weren’t a barbarian.

“Come here at once. We’ll talk more later.”

As I approached them, the yellow-haired man, about 160cm tall, uses this ability.

“This is my power, power of the earth gnome[1]. It can help you assimilate with your surroundings up to a radius of three meters.”

To put it simply, an AoE version of the goblin archer’s stealth ability.

In return, it has the disadvantage of not being able to move.

“Any injuries?”

“None.”

“How lucky.”

The bald-headed man looks at me as he says so.

He’s definitely right.

Did I accidentally stumble upon a bunch of adventurers who have an AoE stealth ability? We can even avoid combat altogether –

“Two barbarians rolled in.”

Fuck you, so you were talking to yourself?!

Really, I thought things were finally working out.

No, maybe there isn’t any problem?

「The character has fallen into a state of [suppression].」

“Hoho.”

A flash of greed can be seen in the adventurers’ eyes, including the baldie.

One of them’s already rummaged through my backpack and opened the magic stone pouch.

“You made a lot of money in just two days.”

I want to cave his ribs in with my mace right now, but my body doesn’t move.

And the same goes for Ainar.

“Were you surprised that your body suddenly stopped moving?”

It’s the power of an essence, of course.

I can already guess what kind of essence it is.

There are many similar abilities, but there’s only one that these guys, who are adventurers on the same floor as us, can have.

‘A stone golem’s [suppression], is it… ‘

I’m sure.

I got hit by the active skill of the eighth-grade monster, stone golem.

The easiest way to break free is to take damage, even a trivial hit for 1 damage is fine…

If these bastards aren’t completely brainless, they’d be careful about that.

“Hey, buddy, it’s no use glaring like that. It’s not like you can solve the ability that way.”

This is the worst situation, that can’t even be described as disgusting.

Damn, I said I was going to live, but I’m just going to die like this?

“Look at how he’s glaring. Hey, you still don’t understand the situation you’re in?”

“It’s fine, Ramod. Just end it like this. That pillager they mentioned might come along any moment, it’s bothering me.”

“Sheesh, this is too bad. We finally caught a woman, but she’s a barbarian.”

“You idiot, isn’t a barbarian better? How much would its heart sell for?”

Their ugly desires, now revealed in full, prickle my skin and chill my bones.

The bald man pulls out a sharp blade and lifts it.

“Kill them in one blow. Don’t bother me.”

“Tsk, don’t worry.”

Whiz!

Killing intent suffuses the wind.

Pointing towards my neck.

‘… Neck?’

Even when death is imminent, my brain synthesizes all sensory information and suggests a way.

Of course, I don’t know if it really would work.

But it’d be much more productive than ruminating on my life and pondering over my regrets.

Snikt!

The sharp blade cuts through my neck.

At the same time, a tingling sensation rises, and the stiffness that covered my body is released.

I immediately tilt my head back.

Like a boxer turning his face and bleeding off the power of an incoming punch.

Time slows down to a crawl.

“… Huh?”

I can see the grumpy expression on his face.

The hand that’d been holding the dagger is now empty.

That’s when I feel a foreign object stuck in my throat.

‘Oh, it’s stuck halfway.’

The moment I realize it, my brain makes a brief conclusion.

It’s not bad.

As long as it doesn’t bleed as much, I can hold on a little longer.

Creak.

Balancing on one leg by forcing the other to loosen –

I swing the mace in my hand.

Towards that shiny, smooth, hairless crown.

Crunch–!

The bald man starts collapsing, his skull half caved in.

Slowly, at about 0.5x speed.

“Darvan!!”

There are so many confused faces all around.

What, you fuckers didn’t expect the guy with a knife stuck in his neck to hit back?

“Y-, -ou…”

Actually, I didn’t expect to either.

But this is how it is.

“Fu-, -cks…”

Something is seeping out of my throat all the while.

My body loses strength and the light blurs.

Is this shock?

A tingling sensation is spreading from head to toe.

Lack of oxygen and blood.

It hurts!

The mace and the shield I’ve been holding fall to the floor as if I can’t even grasp them properly.

I want to collapse right away and rest…

But there’s still work to be done.

I’m not doing this shit just to take one more bastard down with me.

Creak!

Stomping on my feet, I raise up my staggering body.

Pulling out the knife directly from my neck –

I throw it at Ainar, who’s only about four steps away.

Snikt!

Uh, I didn’t know it would stick like that.

“Ouch!”

Sorry, but at least your body can move now.

Slash!

At the instant the dagger pierces her forearm, Ainar swings her greatsword and cuts the nearby archer in two at the waist.

From there she flows into a pirouette, rotating once, then leaps and slam her weapon down on the third guy’s head.

His steel helmet is completely useless.

Crunch–!

Blood trickles out from the cracks covering the mass of scrap metal that the helmet has become.

“Hey, this crazy…!”

The blond, who’s standing the farthest, immediately leaps away and runs without looking back.

He’s no slower than a goblin in assessing the situation.

“Bjorn!”

Ainar, who’s finished cleaning up the surroundings, comes running, kneeling down.

Huh, then I can leave the rest to you –

“Bjorn…!”

Ainar hugs me and shouts my name like a dirge.

… As if she’s talking about a dead man.

Feeling an ominous sensation, I forcefully open my drowsy eyes and try to talk.

“P-, cough!”

“I get it! I will definitely get payback for you!”

No, it’s not about payback.

「 Achievement complete 」

「 Condition: Health drops below 0.1%. 」

「 Reward: Mind permanently increases by +3. 」

I desperately force out the word.

“Potion…”

Fuck you, save me.

「Bjorn Yandel」

Level: 2

Body: 46 / Mind: 39 (New +3) / Abilities: 4

Item Level: 202

Combat Index: 139.5 (New +3)

Screeeech!

The hole in my neck began to heal, accompanied by a wave of pain.

But I was still ecstatic.

Because I could feel so clearly the life being breathed into my almost-corpse.

“Heh heh heh.”

The burning pain awakened the mind that had dulled.

… I lived.

I really thought I was going to cross the Jordan River and step foot into the promised land this time.

Thankfully, I didn’t use those 1.4 million stones for anything else and got the undying imprint first.

If not for that, I wouldn’t be sitting here now.

“Ainar.”

“Did you wake up?”

“Gear, grab all the gear first…”

As soon as I had the energy to speak, I gave Ainar instructions.

After that, I somehow hauled myself up and splattered the rest of the potion all over my neck.

Splosh.

It felt like splashing money, but it couldn’t be helped.

Even though the wound on my neck seemed to be getting better, who knew what state the insides were in.

What kind of damage had it done to my brain?

So, it was better to take precautions in advance.

“Ouch…”

In fact, before long, a tingling sensation appeared in the back of my skull.

Considering the intensity of the pain, it didn’t seem serious, but it might’ve developed into a major problem if left unattended.

“Can I check it for a moment?”

“… What about the equipment?”

“I’ve already grabbed everything.”

I see.

At my nod, Ainar lifted my chin and carefully inspected the wound.

“This is going to scar.”

It was a bit weird.

Erwen had said something pretty similar.

Well, the feelings behind the words were completely different, though.

“Great. You’ll be the only barbarian with a scar from a pierced neck!”

Did she consider this body art?

Seriously, no matter how much the barbarians’ way of life is to believe only in your own body, even they don’t make a habit of surviving with a hole drilled into their neck.

“Now what?”

Ainar asked about my future plans.

I was also nervous about this.

Even though I’d just finished walking a tightrope between life and death…

Nothing had actually been resolved.

“How long has it been?”

“At the longest, about five minutes.”

Five minutes…

On the contrary, meeting these bastards had made the situation worse.

I’d been crazy to consider it.

No matter how urgent the situation, to try and borrow the power of other adventurer bastards?

Anyway, there’d be time to regret it later.

“Which way did he run?”

“Towards there.”

Leading Ainar, I moved in the direction the blond had escaped to.

Although because the floor was muddy, there were no footprints left, so it was impossible to track him properly…

But, just as expected –

“Here you are.”

I found him not too far away.

It was so dark around here, how far could he run?

Perhaps while running, he’d banged his head on the rubble of a building, and fallen to the ground unconscious.

“Hey! S-, spare me!”

After taking everything that could be used a weapon, I roughly stomped on his back to wake him up, and he immediately started grovelling.

A very polite attitude compared to before.

When he’d been clicking his tongue earlier because the woman they’d caught was a barbarian.

“Uuggghhhh!”

Ainar grabbed the man by the neck and lifted him up with one hand.

However, he was so short that his feet couldn’t touch the ground.

“Kaaaghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

Seeing him struggling, being strangled, made me feel refreshed rather than sympathetic.

Rather, I wanted to give him some unasked-for advice. You should have done it properly.

Always aim at the head, not the neck.

If you do that, even a potion or an undying imprint won’t help.

“Ainar, release him.”

Despite looking like she was questioning my instructions inside, Ainar let go.

I approached the fallen man and growled my order in his ears.

“Use your power. If you want to live.”

That was the only reason why I hadn’t dealt with this yellow rat yet.

The power of the earth gnome that this guy had.

Because I needed it right now.

“Done, I used it!”

“How long can you keep it up?”

“Thirty minutes! No, I can last forty minutes! So –!”

He was a chatterbox.

I wished he could just answer my questions.

I asked again, his collar clenched in my hand.

“How long will it take to use it again?”

“I have to rest afterwards for as long as I keep it up.”

“Right.”

I released my grip on his neck.

And pressed my feet down on his torso to prevent him from escaping.

As was my usual way with the goblins.

“Isn’t it better to just kill him? I think she gave up on us anyway.”

I wondered what kind of bullshit she was spouting now, but it might’ve looked like that from her point of view.

Although we managed to escape, it was unknown whether or not we were actually pursued.

Even considering the time to track us down, it was definitely strange that we hadn’t even seen her hide nor hair yet.

“Gave up…”

Certainly, the possibility existed.

Maybe that psychopath bitch thought rookies like us weren’t even worth chasing after.

So what if we returned to the city and testified?

If that bare face we saw earlier was actually some magical disguise, that’d fit as an explanation.

But…

Squelch.

Things couldn’t possibly go that well.

I mean, this was me we were talking about.

Editor’s Notes:

[1] 노움 (lit. gnome), gnome – a fantasy species or a spirit of the earth. Translating as earth gnome for the name of the power only.