Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Ego Sword Picked Me Up (10)

Vamp.

Even so, the total came to 1 gold and 72 silver. It was an amount close to a week’s worth of request fees.

The reason the blood had vanished from the monster corpses was because I had offered it as a sacrifice to the Necronomicon. Only then could I summon and command Baluka. If I continued feeding it blood, there was also the effect of new magic appearing in the grimoire.

“I look forward to working with you from now on.”

After thinking for a moment, Carlton said,“……To shed the apprentice label, you must complete a promotion request together with a lower-grade mercenary. Are you interested?”

The apprentice mercenary process usually lasted 1 month.

Carlton had recognized my ability and given me a chance after only 1 week.

It was a rapid promotion.

“Please entrust me with anything.”

“Brad happens to be visiting this afternoon, so meet him then. He is a little eccentric, but he does not play tricks on apprentices, so it should be fine.”

According to rumors, 3 out of every 10 apprentice mercenaries died during the promotion test.

Some were injured while hunting monsters like Vulfs, but the tricks played by lower-grade mercenaries were a bigger reason. Lower-grade mercenaries used apprentice mercenaries as bait or meat shields in order to complete hunting requests easily.

That afternoon, I met a man with a square jaw. He had a long scar on his cheek, probably from being scratched by a monster’s claw.

Monster hunts sometimes lasted several days, so I placed a blanket on top of my backpack and packed emergency rations and a canteen as well.

“I’m Brad.”

“Rob.”

There was a man named Rob beside Brad. He handled a pair of daggers, and he was on the small side with light movements.

“I’m Rohan.”

After we introduced ourselves, we immediately headed for the northern forest.

“We need to go deeper. Monsters have been wiped out around here lately.”

Brad’s words made me flinch, but I did not answer.

It was after we had walked in for quite some time.

I discovered a flash of light in the distant forest.

“There is a Vulf ahead.”

Brad looked back at me as if he could not believe it, and Rob carefully entered the forest to scout.

A short while later, Rob returned with his breath held and nodded. It meant he had found the Vulf.

Brad gestured to me. He was telling me to go first.

‘Is this man no different after all?’

When I drew Flambeju and stepped forward, Brad stuck close beside me. It was a position where he could help me at any time.

The reason I had noticed the Vulf’s location was thanks to the red solid line protruding from it. That light was clearly visible within the dark underbrush.

“Grrrrrr.”

The Vulf noticed my approach. It had probably smelled me.

However, the Vulf did not look back at me. Its gaze was directed forward.

‘A woman?’

She was a person who did not suit such a secluded forest.

She was dressed in ordinary clothes, and I found no weapon on her. That meant she was not a mercenary.

That did not mean she had a frightened expression either.

The woman faced the Vulf. Her face was as hard as a statue, and her eyes were like beads.

However, her face was alien, far removed from beauty. Her eyes and expression were awkward.

CRAAAAACK!

The woman’s mouth opened.

Up and down, then left and right.

Her lips split into 4 strands and rose diagonally in 4 directions. Between them, several sharp fangs were revealed like the teeth of a beast.

Even at that grotesque sight, the Vulf did not back down and charged.

―R-Run! Right now!

There was no time to react to Flambeju’s urgent shout.

Thud!

The lower-grade mercenary Rob fell backward in shock, and the woman heard the sound. Her eyeballs turned this way.

The Vulf charged in as if trying to crush the woman with its front paw, but the woman blocked the Vulf’s paw with her enormous mouth.

CRUNCH-CRUNCH-CRUNCH!

The woman chewed the Vulf’s front paw.

The Vulf raked the woman’s chest with its other paw, and that attack was fairly successful.

Her chest split open and blood sprayed, but the woman merely staggered.

CRRRUNCH!

The woman chewed through the Vulf’s paw, then its snout, cutting off its breath.

Afterward, the woman approached the fallen mercenary Rob.

‘What the hell is that…….’

The wound on the woman’s chest was healing rapidly. Red blood foam even rose from the long split.

ZING—

Along with a sharp sound, the voice of the Akashic Records was heard.

―Vamps walk around wearing the shells of the living even after death, mingling with their own kind and deceiving humans. A malformed mouth that splits 4 ways is the mark of a Vamp. If one does not drink blood for 7 days, reason vanishes, leaving only the nature of a beast to run wild, and its strength reaches 3 or 4 times what it possessed in life. Complete destruction is impossible until its neck is severed or its heart destroyed, and by Deville’s classification standards, it belongs to the “malformed B~C Grade monsters.”

It was a monster one or two grades above a Vulf.

I had learned its weak points were the neck and heart, but no red solid line could be found on that woman.

It meant the Vamp’s ability lightly surpassed mine.

“S-Save me!”

“Roooob!”

Before Brad could even run, the Vamp charged at Rob and bit off his entire head.

‘Fast!’

Its movements were not on a level I could handle. Even if I ran without looking back, I wondered whether I could truly escape the Vamp’s grasp.

The one blessing amid misfortune was the fact that the Vamp liked Rob.

She stopped after chewing the Vulf a few times, but she carefully chewed and swallowed Rob from head to torso. Her crimson eyes were fixed on Brad the entire time.

Steam rose from Brad, who had been marked as the next prey. He seemed to be expressing that he would taste bad by urinating heavily, but the Vamp’s gaze remained fixed on him.

―T-That is a Vamp! An undead! Come to your senses and run, Master!

“My senses have been clear for a while.”

My mind was clearer than ever.

It was probably thanks to the Achievement “One Who Gazed upon Yog-Sothoth.” Perhaps because I had faced an immense existence like Yog-Sothoth, even seeing a Vamp that could kill me right away did not make me tremble much.

‘My mind will never collapse.’

The effect of the Achievement was even greater than I had thought. In particular, it was a great help in surviving this savage world.

“Senior Brad, slowly move behind me. I don’t know if we can run, but we should do what we can.”

Only after hearing my words did Brad regain his senses a little. He crawled toward me, almost on all fours.

The Vamp was in the middle of eating Rob’s torso and arms, then each of his legs. Perhaps because her digestive organs had changed when she became a Vamp, that small body fit the large Rob entirely inside it.

CRACK!

She looked to be in her early thirties at most, yet she had enough monstrous strength to snap Rob’s leg with her bare hands.

The gaze that had been aimed at Brad shifted to me.

Chill!

The moment my eyes met the woman’s, every hair on my body stood on end.

Fear!

An uncontrollable emotion poured down like a waterfall, as if even my senses were being paralyzed.

Death!

An atmosphere of despair reeking of a musty smell covered me.

However, the fear and despair that had been rushing in vanished as if washed away. This, too, was the effect of the Achievement.

And the Vamp threw away a pair of feet still wearing shoes and charged at me.

―Master!

My body reacted to Flambeju’s shout.

High Guard!

It was a basic kendo stance. I had trained in it for countless hours, and I had faced countless opponents that charged like beasts.

Across all those experiences, that Vamp was the fastest.

―Daaaaaaamn it!

Flambeju let out a cry of despair.

However, I did what I had to do. Though I could not see any red solid line, I trusted Flambeju.

‘As long as it touches, I can cut anything!’

The Vamp was so fast that it was difficult to follow with the eye, but its movement was a simple straight line.

SWIIIIISH!

There was a sensation transmitted through the hilt.

‘I cut it!’

The Vamp caught on the tip of the sword.

The tilted Vamp slammed into my side with its shoulder. Perhaps it had failed to chew me with its gaping mouth, because its teeth grazed my thigh while gnawing at it.

SLAAAAASH!

My thigh burst open and blood sprayed.

I was pushed back by the Vamp’s monstrous strength and rolled backward, and the Vamp also lost its balance and fell.

Blood poured from the Vamp’s shoulder.

The blood quickly stopped, and the wound seemed to be repairing itself, but its complexion turned pale.

‘The Vamp’s healing power has a limit too. And my condition is…… manageable.’

Fortunately, my side did not hurt. Judging from the slight creaking whenever I moved, my ribs seemed to be cracked or broken. At a glance, the wound on my thigh looked more serious.

‘The backlash from this fight is going to be pretty severe too, isn’t it?’

I decided to leave trivial worries to my future self. I raised Flambeju again and faced the Vamp.

I aimed the tip of the sword at its mouth, which was split into 4 parts.

Middle Guard.

The Vamp was around 150 centimeters tall, and it did not carry a weapon.

And that thing was stupid.

‘Has it gone feral?’

A Vamp went feral if it did not drink blood for more than 7 days. In addition, its physical abilities doubled.

As I had expected, the feralized Vamp was stupid. It tried the same attack method that had already failed once.

THUD-THUD-THUD!

The Vamp kicked off the ground and charged.

It was a straight line, and the tip of Flambeju’s blade aimed at its forehead.

Red solid line!

I could see what had been invisible until just now. It was probably because the Vamp’s shoulder had been torn ragged.

The Vamp’s form vanished in an instant, but I swung Flambeju without hesitation.

SHAAAAK!

Bright red blood sprayed in every direction.

The Vamp’s roughly severed head soared into the air, then fell and rolled away.

The Vamp collapsed just like that, driving the half of its head that remained into the ground.

Even so, the Vamp twitched.

‘Undead are tenacious. To think it can move even in this state!’

Only after I cut through the fallen Vamp’s neck with Flambeju did the Vamp stop moving.

―You lunatic master! You nearly died!

My knees buckled.

My side felt cold. No, it felt stiff. No, it hurt violently. The pain in my thigh was not mild either. All that agony rushed in at once.

‘Fuck.’

―Come to your senses! You master bastard, come to your senses! Heyyyyy!

***

I was alive.

I had been laid on a bed, and bandages were wrapped around my torso and thigh. Beside me, there was someone looking down at me with pitying eyes. He reached out to me and changed the wet towel on my forehead.

“Are you awake? You nearly died.”

He was a man with a rough impression. He smelled of sour sweat that made me want to gift him deodorant.

“Where…….”

“You don’t remember? You saved me!”

“Ah!”

The hazy memory became clear and played back in detail.

Ever since I had fallen into this world, my 5 senses and memory had amplified beyond recognition.

―Reflect on yourself! You refused to listen to me and insisted on being stubborn, so you nearly died! What would you have done if there had been more than one Vamp?!

It was indeed a major problem that I fainted whenever I used Flambeju. If this happened again, I could not be certain of survival next time.

―Still, well, you did well for your first time. None of the masters who passed through me did as well as you. But do not get too arrogant! If you diligently devote yourself, you will one day be able to fly around like today without losing consciousness.

The blond young man poured out words for a long while that were hard to tell as scolding or praise. Contrary to that strict attitude, he thoroughly examined me to see whether I had any injuries.

Not only that, he blew on the places wrapped in bandages and muttered words like a spell.

―Hoo~, hoo~, heal quickly! Heal quickly!