Genius Corpse-Collecting Warrior - Chapter 28
Silent Night (5)
Clumping!
Wow! Crack!
Muscles twitch.
It contracted and relaxed repeatedly and wriggled as if it had an independent self.
It feels like it’s tearing the skin and coming out, but the next moment it’s putting pressure on the internal organs and squeezing them.
Dallen gritted his teeth.
Cheeeeeek!
Steam was billowing out of my nose and mouth like a kettle as the blood was gushing out.
A few times my vision turned white and then black again.
There was only one thought that came to mind.
‘If you get pushed here, you’ll die.’
I didn’t want to die.
I have been struggling all this time to survive.
To survive, I earned money and fulfilled requests.
In order to survive, he used his fists to break rocks and his three-inch tongue to twist the flow of a world approaching destruction.
Even if I die, I have to fight fiercely against the devil and die heroically. I can’t just eat a corpse like this and let my body explode and roll around.
“…!”
Wood-dud-dud-duk!
Press down on the spasming muscles with your will.
I clutch my body as it collapses from the inside.
The muscles that are compressing the internal organs are pushed out by other surrounding muscles, and the muscle fibers that are trying to tear the skin and protrude are held by the nearby muscle fibers.
‘If only my physical strength had reached the level of a superhuman…’
That kind of regret passed by, but there was no need for late regrets.
The stamina and dragon blood were holding up well enough.
All that remains is to do our best to somehow calm this imbalance by gathering all of our remaining abilities.
He observes the inside of his body with superhuman senses and intelligence.
He drew the wind of magical power, grabbed hold of the muscle fibers, and mobilized all the skills he had used in his body so far to relax them.
How much time has passed?
Suddenly, I felt like I was losing my mind.
“…Huh.”
When I came to my senses, I found myself in front of a familiar mountain cabin.
***
Whiiiiiii—
The cutting wind penetrates the torn armor. Snow piled up to my ankles crunched under my bare feet in leather shoes.
“……”
Dallen calmed his embarrassment and slowly looked around.
Behind us was a sheer cliff just a few steps away. In front was a cabin and its backyard.
Dallen walked slowly.
Pout.
Looking at the backyard, it looked like a hunter’s cabin.
Leather drying rack. An ax for chopping firewood and a pile of snow-covered firewood next to it.
A low and wide table for dismembering small animals, a hunting knife and even a hatchet on it.
Sigh.
Dallen quietly picked up the hatchet.
A familiar feeling that sticks to your fingertips.
It was an old hatchet that he had been using for the past few years and that he had recently broken up in a sewer.
‘…a starting point.’
The game starts at an old cabin in the mountains.
This was the place where Dallon first opened his eyes after falling into this world.
Dallen scratched his chin. He had clearly just killed the Great Daoist and retrieved the body. Why did you fall here?
Is it a dream? Or do they just eat the corpse and return as is?
Dallen, who was scratching his chin, suddenly expanded his senses. And I could see what was going on.
‘What kind of…is this a self-immolation technique?’
He had two bodies.
One is the body, just as it was right after recovering the body, in a tense tug-of-war between his skyrocketing strength levels and his will to put it to rest.
And the other is the body that fell into this snowy mountain hut.
Although he couldn’t move the body on the other side, as if he was being held down by scissors, both were his bodies.
Even his superhuman senses were unable to tell which one was an illusion.
However, what he intuitively knows is that something must be resolved here for his original body to regain stability.
“…Whew.”
Dallen sighed. Warm steam passes through my vision.
So, what should we do now?
I looked up and saw that the cabin window was shining brightly.
Originally, the cabin should have been abandoned when he landed on this earth.
All the lights are off and people have left for a long time, so only the cold remains in the hut.
Because that was the basic setting for the starting point, ‘Abandoned Cabin’.
Is that why?
The alien light streaming through the window seemed to be calling to him.
Squeak –
Dallon opened the door and entered. Dry, warm air hit his skin.
The inside of the cabin was not much different from before. Wooden furniture that has been scuffed by hand. A small fireplace and bed in the corner.
The only thing that changed was the desk and chair next to the bed.
“…….”
A black desk with a modern finish. A gamer chair that provides soft back and head support.
And the latest computer whirring beneath it and the monitor on the table.
There was a large barbarian warrior character standing inside the monitor.
A barbarian warrior standing alone in a wide, dark cavity.
The strength value of 30 was blinking and shining in the status window in one corner, and a one-line message was posted in the notification window at the bottom.
[A single ability has reached 30 for the first time. The character formed a small area.]
At that moment, Dallon suddenly felt a presence and turned around.
[Ah rotten. Why did the delivery take an hour?]
A man in sweats was walking there.
I didn’t wash it because it was the weekend, so my hair was as sticky as a new house. Likewise, because it was the weekend, the stubble covered his jawline.
A man holding a bundle of four cans of beer in one hand and a piece of chicken that had just been delivered in the other.
That was his past self, an office worker whose hobby was gaming.
[Tsk, tsk, what a crappy game there is no pause.]
The man clicked his tongue and casually passed by Dallen.
Place canned beer and chicken on the table, sit down on a chair, and bury yourself comfortably.
The man put his hand on the mouse. And then I played the game again.
I comfortably cut chicken with one hand, drank beer, killed tough mobs, and gained experience.
[It’s all cooled down. Tsk tsk tsk. What was the next quest?]
“…….”
As he looked at the clicking mouse and the colorfully glowing monitor, scenes flashed in the back of Dallen’s mind.
His characters died. The NPCs he killed.
The worlds that were inevitably destroyed and the worlds that he gave up on.
No, episodes I didn’t even intend to clear in the first place.
The episodes that took part in the Axis of Evil were simply a means to relieve stress at work.
On the day I broke up with my ex-girlfriend, I went under the control of the evil dragon and turned the whole world into a sea of fire.
Crack.
Without even realizing it, my clenched teeth are clashing harshly.
A feeling of guilt of unknown origin washed over me like a wave.
It felt as if tens of millions of lives had passed away at his fingertips.
The protest that I thought it was just a piece of data became infinitely smaller and was pushed into a corner in the face of the experience of experiencing the living, breathing world.
Can you deny the world you have lived in so far?
If not, what world have you been killing so far? What about those residents?
What about the heroes you killed with your own hands just for fun?
Dallon suddenly realized that he was biting his lip.
Grumble.
Fresh blood flowing down the jaw line and under the torn lip.
Cheeeee…….
And the lips that heal and tear repeatedly due to the strong teeth grip and the regenerative factor of dragon blood.
As the rising steam drifted before his eyes, Dallon suddenly came to his senses.
An image of a man sitting in front of a monitor.
That was his past and the reality of the guilt that seemed to engulf him.
In front of him.
“Whoa.”
Dallen was finally able to sigh deeply.
He said.
“whatever.”
Then and now, my only crime is that I struggled to survive.
And even now, I have no intention of giving up, you bitch.
Pick!
The monitor turned off.
And then my eyes went dark.
***
“……Fuck.”
Dallen opened his eyes.
I felt a little dizzy, like I had been on a roller coaster at Everland about three times.
Of course, in my current body, I wouldn’t feel much emotion even if I rode it 300 times instead of 3 times.
I haven’t been there since my early 20s to begin with, so my memory may have been distorted.
Clap.
The devil’s blood and flesh were trampled underfoot. Dallen suddenly felt that his vision became brighter.
what? When recovering the body, my sensory abilities did not increase.
‘Status window.’
After naturally opening the status window, I could see the change at a glance.
――――――――
Name: Dallon
Level: 9
[Strength: 30] [Skill: 16] [Stamina: 16]
[Sense: 17] [Intelligence: 19] [Magic Power: 14]
Skill: Dehaman’s Armor Fighting (D) Night vision (E) Dragon’s blood regeneration factor (C) Jump (E) Flame arrow (D) Quick freeze (D)
――――――――
In addition to the abilities obtained from recovering the corpse, all abilities are added by 1. there was.
Muscle strength was the only exception. Fortunately, strength was fixed at 30.
That wasn’t all. Skill proficiency also increased noticeably overall.
At least 5% or more. In the case of low-proficiency skills such as leaping and flame arrows, the increase was over 10%.
‘This is my first time seeing something like this.’
This is the first time that such rapid growth has been achieved through a route other than leveling up and recovering corpses.
In the first place, it was a case where growth itself was independent of the system and had never been experienced.
‘There is no room for speculation.’
Dallen stroked his chin.
The notification window I saw on the monitor in the cabin was a hint.
A message in the notification window informing you that a ‘small area’ has been achieved.
The area concept was one of the things I had seen many times in game settings, but was not applied to the actual system.
However, I know from experience many times that such small settings are quite important in this world where games have become reality.
‘I guess I’ll have to ask the old man.’
Felver, the elder wizard of the Elgaia Tower, would know.
Dallen’s excellent memory was because he remembered without a single mistake the words he first introduced himself with.
‘He was said to be an earth mage who cultivated a small area.’
Of course, it’s not something to ask right away. After several battles and having to put his increased strength to rest, his body was already in shambles.
He looks fine on the outside, but the accumulated fatigue is such that it wouldn’t be surprising if he lost consciousness at any time.
Rest came first.
Slowly.
Dallen picked up the broken sword, the scattered shield, and the axe.
As I searched through the sacrificial bodies, I found several more traitorous commanders of the guards.
Dallen took off the man’s clothes, wrapped the broken sword pieces and the rag shield, and draped them over his shoulders.
He put the ax on his belt and loosened the armor straps that were almost tattered.
Snap.
Dallen exited the cavity, leaving ripples in the sea of blood.
With the sound of his clattering footsteps, a dark silence fell over the space.
***
“Dallen! “I’m back.”
Felber waved his hand. Dallen chuckled.
After all, an old man. Even after the bloody battle was over, you corrected yourself better than anyone else.
“okay. “I’m back.”
“This fight was settled a little while ago. I was worried and thought about going down alone… but it seems there was no need to do that. “Thank goodness.”
Dallen looked around without answering.
As Felber said, the battle that took place at the cave entrance seemed to have just ended.
“Ugh….”
“Potion! Bring the potion! hurry!”
“Wow. “Please save me…”
The screams of the injured and the shouts of those taking care of them echo. There was a smell of blood and herbs.
It was not a special sight. Because it was something that usually unfolded after a battle.
Rather, what was surprising was that there were not many deaths even though it was a battle with monsters.
‘For three Silent Company members, there are two wizards.’
Dallen’s good sense told him that about that much was dead.
The number of injured seemed to be more than that. Felber gave me that number.
“The number of dead is five, and the number of injured is twenty-one, excluding minor injuries. Don’t worry, the treatment will be over soon. “There are not many serious injuries that lead to death on the battlefield with the Magic Tower.”
As Felber said, few of the seriously injured seemed to be in serious condition.
This was thanks to the magic tower regeneration potion being poured in as soon as the condition showed signs of worsening.
“Kwaaaaaak!”
“Ahhhh! I think I’m going to die!”
Just by hearing the sound, it seemed like dozens of people were dying. Felber said, laughing.
“Potion treatment usually hurts a bit.”
Dallen nodded. It’s not for nothing that regeneration potions cannot be used during battle in the game.
As soon as it is used, a huge pain debuff is applied, making it almost impossible to continue the battle.
Of course, not all treatments were possible with just one potion, so sane wizards and members of the Silence Company were running around helping treat the injured.
Judging by the blood stains on his hands and the beads of sweat on his brown hair, it seemed that Felber had also been with them before Dallen arrived.
As an elder wizard, you will be skilled in healing spells, so it will be a great help for injuries that are difficult to treat with regeneration potions alone.
“I owe you a lot in one way or another. “Thank you.”
“It is not you who is indebted to me, but the Silence Company and the Bronze Guard. And there is nothing to worry about because we also gain something. “Sometimes you have to experience this kind of real-life experience so that enlightenment is not blocked.”
Felber continued, wiping away sweat with the sleeve of his robe.
“Ah, the silent company commander is sleeping over there. He was seriously injured in the fight with the Silver Mask Apostle and is now in stable condition after being treated with a potion. “He said he was indebted to you a lot and asked me to tell you that he would definitely reward me.”
It’s a case. He said he didn’t have many gold coins. Dallen laughed lowly.
“What about the apostle?”
“The Silent Company commander killed him himself. He ended it with a cruel hand, unlike anyone I knew. “Honestly, I was surprised.”
“Everyone has their own story.”
Dallon said. Felber twitched his brown beard and smiled bitterly.
“…That’s right. “Is there anyone who doesn’t have a story?”
“Elder wizard!”
At that time, a wizard quickly found Felber. The story was that the potion did not work well for the patient.
Felber hurriedly ran away, saying he would excuse himself.
“It’s because the broken claws of this monster are deeply embedded. It needs to be removed and treated first. Elle-zeitum.”
At his low incantation, a six-fingered hand rises from the ground.
The Hand of Earth followed Felber’s will and used its thin fingers to pick at the patient’s affected area.
Dallen watched him for a while as he applied spells to perform surgical operations and used potions and healing spells before walking away.
‘Time to go.’
As he walked out of the cave, he found Gawain sleeping. Even though he was injured and collapsed, he had a calm expression on his face.
Perhaps I will avenge my family’s enemies with my own hands.
The corpse of the silver-masked crocodile man, with all his limbs cut off, was preserved separately in a corner.
Tadadat.
Dallen whispered in the ear of a young wizard who was passing by.
“Don’t think the elder wizard didn’t know. “Because I can see it all.”
I flinch.
The moment the wizard was startled, his hair under his robe turned golden, but then quickly turned brown again.
Dallen smiled lowly and patted him on the back to tell him to go. The wizard quickly walked away.
Was his name Tommy? This young wizard still seemed immature after the sewer incident.
‘Felber will take care of educating you well.’
In any case, it is a matter between priests and priests. It was not his area to interfere.
I guess the fact that he left the person who secretly followed him means that he was planning on letting him learn a lot from this place.
For an immature boy to grow up, there was no better place than a bloody battlefield.
Whether they are wizards or farmers, old people who have lived honorably are always wise.
Jerk.
When I came out of the cave, dawn was breaking.
Dallen sighed as he looked at the sun shining brightly beyond the bronze castle wall in the distance.
“I’ll be stopping by the branch soon! Let’s take a look!”
When he heard the voice of the elder wizard shouting behind him, he raised his hand and stirred.
Perhaps because I came from watching chicken and beer at the cabin, I wanted to have a cold beer before going to bed.