Chapter 3

Chapter 3 : First Murder

First, I carefully recalled my opponent’s specs.

‘...Tirosh’s level was definitely around 24.’

And the rune he had equipped was [Lesser Merfolk Archer’s Rune].

The Lesser Merfolk Archer’s Rune was fairly useful when firing a bow, but in a situation like this, it might as well not exist at all.

The level difference between us was enormous, but I was currently benefiting from bonus stats thanks to [Antagon’s Rune].

And considering his physical decline from age, our actual combat ability would not be separated by heaven and earth.

More importantly, the fact that I was barely managing to evade Tirosh’s attacks proved exactly that.

‘At the very least, our agility should be about even...!’

It also helped that most sailors tended to build themselves around Strength, since their work was centered on physical labor.

So if I could use our roughly equal speed to land even one solid hit somehow.

If I struck one exact point, I could get out of this crisis.

Having finished my calculations, I snatched up a wooden plank lying on the floor.

At the same time, the old man’s foul-smelling sneer drifted over.

“Heh heh... Do you really think you can defeat me with a mere plank like that? To think that was the grand idea you came up with after wringing your brain dry. How pitiful.”

“......”

“I am tired of humoring you. Now be a good little offering and become a burnt sacrifice to please the Sea God.”

Tirosh closed the distance in an instant and thrust his curved blade toward my midsection.

At the same moment I bent my waist back as far as it would go to evade the sword, I swung the plank with all my might.

Tirosh easily leaned his upper body away and dodged it, sneering all the while, but―

“It’s... not over yet...!!”

I planted my foot hard and swung the plank again.

A clean rising slash.

It was a strike backed by all the know-how I had built up in Velheim, but perhaps because my Strength was lacking, Tirosh dodged this attack easily as well.

But that was exactly what I had been aiming for.

Crack―!!

“......!!”

In the next instant, the lantern I had struck with the wooden plank shattered, and yellow flames splashed onto Tirosh.

From the beginning, the lantern had been my true target.

The fire devoured oil and flesh alike, spreading wildly out of control in the blink of an eye.

“GAAAAAAAH―!!! F-fire―!!!”

“......”

With pupils trembling in horror, I stared at the writhing old man.

So this was how terrible the screams of a person burning alive sounded.

Had I screamed like that too, while I burned?

“...I know that pain well too.”

Even while feeling a flicker of sympathy, I was already moving.

Because if I let this chance slip away, it would never come again.

“Die!!”

“GAAAAH!!! Ghk―?!”

I lunged at Tirosh and drove the glass shard into his neck.

As I clung to his burning body, searing heat scorched my skin, and desperation surged chaotically through my mind.

Each time I brought the shard down, his convulsing body clawed at my throat and spat out curse-ridden words.

“Die...! Please die―!!”

Meeting the eyes glaring at me through the flames, I slammed my hand down again and again.

I did not even have the time to register the pain bursting from my torn palm.

Blood splashed across my cheek and ran together with my tears, and whenever the ship lurched, the red liquid spilling down spread noisily across the floor.

Then I realized that a new notification had appeared in my vision.

｢You have achieved your first murder!｣

｢Your level has increased!｣

｢Your level has increased!｣

“......”

Murder.

It carried a weight that could not be described by mere letters alone.

And yet, there was also something strangely light about the fact that an entire person’s life could be tied off in a single line.

But I had neither the time to rejoice nor the luxury to grieve.

Because Velheim was no longer a world where I could survive with the same naïve mindset as before.

At least in this life, I swore that I would survive no matter what, even if it meant trampling others beneath my feet.

Leaving Tirosh’s corpse behind, I took his cutlass and climbed up onto the deck.

A violent storm was raging there.

“Reef the sails, all of you!!!”

“I-it’s impossible!! The wind is too strong, we cannot bring them down!!”

“Then slash them down if you have to!! Do you want to watch this ship flip over at this rate?! And what is the helmsman doing instead of holding the rudder?!!”

“First Mate!!! Water is flooding into the hold!!”

“Then go bail it out at once!!! Why are you standing there like idiots?! If we sink here, we are all finished!!”

“Ahhh, the Sea God is enraged...! We are all going to die....”

Scattered screams, faces flashing and contorting each time lightning split the sky, a flotilla of pirate ships drifting precariously as they crashed and swayed beyond the towering waves....

Keeping my posture low so I would not be swept away by the gale, I looked around the deck, but everyone seemed too busy desperately struggling against the storm to spare me any attention.

The pirates were straining with everything they had, trying to escape the brutal sea.

But....

“...The storm is not the real problem.”

With fear in my eyes, I stared beyond the blackened sea.

Something worse than the storm was coming.

The reason this tutorial was called the ‘Raid’ on Mary Celeste.

The reason this tutorial bore the label ‘Impossible to Survive.’

As I looked around with trembling eyes, I witnessed a bizarre phenomenon.

In the rain-lashed night sky, a sour, rotting stench mingled with the wind.

The fish flopping on the deck instantly began to rot.

Jerky and fruit rolling across the wooden planks decayed in the blink of an eye.

It was an unreal sight, as though a videotape were being fast-forwarded.

I knew exactly what it meant.

The moment I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself for the horrific scene about to unfold, colossal shapes rose from the middle of the sea.

｢The ghost ship Mary Celeste appears!!｣

｢You have encountered an evil being, a Lich! The power of magic is greatly reduced!｣

｢You have faced the despair of sailors. All status values are greatly reduced.｣

｢You have witnessed the horrors of the open sea! If you return alive and tell this tale in a tavern, you may earn their favor.｣

｢You have heard the Banshee’s wail! Luck is greatly decreased....｣

The worst nightmare of any sailor was about to be reenacted before my eyes.

***

A massive shape rose from the middle of the sea.

An enormous ghost ship of brigantine design, so old it looked as though no human hand had touched it for centuries.

Then hideous undead behemoths appeared and escorted the sailing ship, while shrieking Banshees circled through the storm.

All across the sea, the ships that had fallen victim to the Mary Celeste lurched back up to the surface.

It was a grotesque and horrifying spectacle, dizzying to behold.

Mary Celeste.

Back when I had been a top-ranked player, I had put together parties and raided it a few times, but in my current state, it was an event I could not even dream of challenging.

I was busy cursing the goddess out in my head when one of the pirates suddenly shouted in panic.

“S-skeletons!! The skeletons are climbing up the hull!!”

“N-no way?! The ghost ship is still that far away, so how are skeletons already here...?!”

“The sea....”

“What...?”

“They ran across the sea!! Look over there!”

In the direction the pirate was frantically pointing, a group of skeletons was approaching by skimming over the water like water-skiers, with Sea Serpent scales strapped to the soles of their feet.

A skeleton legion advanced, overwhelming in number, filling the sea.

Before long, a few of them had already climbed onto the deck.

“Damn it...! Everyone, prepare for battle!!”

“Fight bravely!! Do not let the undead take the ship!!”

“I-it is not too late yet! If we can just hold this ship, we can survive!!”

The pirates on deck drew their swords and began fighting the skeletons.

The clang of metal erupted from all directions whenever blades collided, sparks flew, and the lantern light flickered faintly through the wind and rain.

As I scanned my surroundings in search of a way to survive, two skeletons approached me as well.

“Damn it....”

Realizing there was nowhere left to run, I drew my blade and faced them.

‘Can I win...?’

Calmly, I examined the skeletons.

Even monsters of the same species in Velheim varied somewhat in combat ability.

In the case of skeletons, the gap in strength between individuals was especially wide.

A skeleton pieced together from a farmer’s bones could never be the same as an undead knight.

And judging by their crude postures and brittle-looking bones, fortunately, these skeletons in front of me were not the remains of skilled swordsmen or mercenaries.

Crack!!!

The moment I judged it was worth a try, I brought the cutlass down on the advancing skeleton.

Thanks to the countless times I had swung swords through the capsule device while playing Velheim, the strike itself was decently sharp, but the skeleton merely staggered back with a small nick in its bones.

Clicking my tongue openly, I struck again and managed to shatter one of its ribs, but the skeleton kept advancing as though nothing had happened.

When it swung its rusted curved blade at me, I leaned my upper body back and dodged.

‘Slow.’

Thanks to my natural reflexes, it was not difficult to avoid the sluggish attacks of a skeleton.

The harder part was keeping my balance on the deck, slick with wind and rain.

The real problem lay elsewhere.

Clack!!

As the skeleton advanced with its sword raised, I seized an opening and slashed at it.

But once again, the cutlass failed to inflict any real damage and simply slid off.

Because the rain-soaked bones were impossibly slippery.

It was the same principle by which medieval armorers would curve the surface of armor and oil it, so blades would glance away.

‘Damn it...!’

Trying to cut down skeletons with a sword was horribly inefficient.

At this rate, trouble would arrive before I could even deal with them.

I needed another way to fight them.

Then what about striking instead of slashing?

Crack!!

When I swung the scabbard in my left hand with all my strength and smashed it into the skeleton’s skull, the cackling skeleton went flying backward.

The skeleton sprawled across the deck and stared up at me in bewilderment.

‘Just as I thought, this works better against a pile of bones...!’

I immediately invested all the stat points I had gained from killing Tirosh into Strength.

Then I sheathed the blade, clenched the sword belt in my teeth to hold it in place, and swung with all my might.

As I struck its joints with the cutlass, now turned into a blunt weapon in an instant, the skeleton staggered and was driven back hard.

―Clack! Clack! Grrrk...!

“Good... it works!”

A cutlass was a weapon designed not only for close combat, but also for all sorts of practical tasks aboard a ship, like cutting rope or carving wood.

Its build was thick and sturdy from the start, which meant that once sheathed, it could serve as a makeshift club.

And it was producing unexpectedly effective results in another way too.

｢The sailors have fallen into fear upon encountering the undead. Due to the effect of the passive skill [Chaos], your stats are enhanced.｣

｢To gain a stronger effect, plunge those around you into further confusion!｣

[Chaos]

A skill of Antagon’s Rune that temporarily raises your abilities every time you startle people.

It reflected the nature of the god Antagon as a deadly prankster and clown.

If memory serves, it had once been a skill so negligible it might as well not have existed, but now that there were so many pirates gathered here, the stat boost had risen to a level that could not be ignored.

That was why I, a mere level 3, could stand against skeletons at all.

Clatter!

“Get lost!!!”

｢You have defeated a Skeleton.｣

｢Your level has increased.｣

｢[Lesser Sailor’s Skeleton] has been added to your list of available transformations!｣

The skeleton’s skull, smashed by the sheathed weapon, flew off, and it collapsed in a heap like a marionette with its strings cut.

It would reassemble itself and come at me again soon enough, but for now, that bought me time to search for an escape.

Resisting the steadily increasing number of undead, I desperately searched for a path to survival.

‘I have to find the lifeboat and get out of here...!’

If memory serves, there was a single lifeboat on this ship.

Relying on a tiny dinghy to break through this storm was an act of suicide, but it was still more realistic than trying to fight an endlessly regenerating undead horde sustained by a Lich’s magic.

It was the method with the highest chance of survival, however small that chance might be.

And just as I was smashing skeletons aside and carving a path forward―

Craaack...!

“......!!”

Suddenly, an ominous sound came from the weapon in my hand.

Startled, I looked down and saw a huge crack running through the scabbard.

I had been so focused on smashing apart my enemies that I had neglected the scabbard’s durability.

A sword might endure such punishment, but there was no way a mere scabbard—nothing more than wood reinforced with metal—could withstand that kind of abuse forever.

The moment the scabbard shattered and scattered across the deck, the skeletons that had been getting beaten senseless froze and stared at me.

For an instant, the atmosphere turned awkward, as though time itself had stopped in this one place.

“Haha... hello, everyone...?”

―Clack...!

―Clackclackclackclack!!!!

“Fuck!!”

As the enraged skeletons swarmed toward me, I hurriedly fled and searched for some way to survive.

But what the hell was I supposed to do?

I had only just reincarnated. All I had to my name was this body and one worn-out cutlass.

The divine power contained in the goddess’s pendant was so faint that it was impossible to tell whether it would help at all.

The only thing I could meaningfully use right now was [Antagon’s Rune]....

‘If only it were a combat-oriented rune, I could have tried something immediately.’

If I had to sum up Antagon’s Rune in a single word, it would be ‘clown.’

Like Loki from Norse mythology, it was built around using all sorts of utility skills—polymorph, speechcraft, gambling—to constantly stir up chaos, then using the stat boosts from [Chaos] to crush your enemies.

In other words, if I, at only level 4, wanted to improve my chances of surviving this mess, then I had to create as much disorder as possible and secure more stats.

As it happened, an idea had been floating in my head for a while now.

The problem was that the method was a little—no, very—unusual.

‘Is that really my only option?’

Damn, even I think this is completely insane.

“Ah, screw it.”

I’ll just do it and see what happens.

Thunk―!

“Gaaah!”

The moment I suddenly stabbed the pirate next to me in the thigh, the skeletons all turned to stare at me as though I were the lunatic here.