Chapter 9
As they leaped high through the fog, a massive bud with a pitch-black hole in its center came into view.
The moment the Mummy Queen registered their presence, it unspooled the bandages wrapping its body, whipping them out to swallow the two of them whole.
And Van…
“Brace yourself.”
He hurled Cadel right over the bud.
“Are you crazy…?!”
Roots lunged fiercely, aiming for Cadel as he plummeted toward the empty ground. But before they could even touch him, a flying wave of Sword Aura cleaved them in two.
Cadel crashed and tumbled across the dirt. The impact against his ribs made his vision flash white for a second. Reflexively clutching his chest, Cadel gasped for breath. The moment he struggled to lift his head to check on Van…
His breath caught.
Van was right on the verge of being swallowed by the bud. Dozens of extended bandages completely surrounded him, and he was plummeting straight into the maw with his greatsword raised. The unfolding scene was entirely surreal.
“Van!”
A tearing scream ripped from his throat. Perhaps the cry reached him, as for a brief moment, their eyes met, Van’s red irises visible through the gaps in the bandages.
“Go, Captain!”
That was his final answer.
Van was completely trapped inside the bud. As if satisfied, the bud that swallowed him retracted all its bandages to defend its main body. Cadel’s eyes trembled in despair.
He just gets eaten? Like that?
It was impossible. It shouldn’t have happened.
How can it go like this from the very start? Does it make sense for the game to be this unreasonable right out of the gate? Don’t make me laugh!
Urgently pushing himself up, Cadel tried to sprint toward the bud. However, catching his movement, the roots shot up as if they had been waiting, making it completely impossible to approach.
“Van! Van, you crazy bastard! I told you to attack, who told you to get eaten? Who told you to die?!”
Screaming in a frenzy, he backed away to dodge the roots’ attacks.
It was horrific. If this were a normal game, he would have exited the stage without hesitation and restarted. He would have made up for his regrettable mistakes, devised a strategy where no one got hurt, and cleared it smoothly.
Should we have trained first? Should I have upgraded Van’s weapon? Yeah, I should have. I pushed the story forward too fast. I didn’t even know what I was doing, and my ambition just got ahead of me…
Despair crashed over him like a tidal wave, shaking him to the core. Cadel didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t even confirm whether Van was truly dead or not, and he couldn’t bring himself to flee. Contrary to his racing thoughts, his body refused to move, frozen in place like a broken machine.
“Th-there he is! The mage!”
“Hey! What are you doing standing around! Run!”
It was Ron and Babil who found him. They hurriedly ran over and grabbed Cadel by the arm as he stood there blankly.
“Let’s get out of here, quickly!”
“Van… Van is in there…”
“I saw it too!”
Dragging the dazed Cadel, Babil scowled. While fleeing along the outskirts, Babil had witnessed it as well. The sight of Van letting himself be eaten by the Mummy Queen just to save Cadel.
But he couldn’t help Van, and frankly, he had no intention of trying. Safely escaping using the brief window Van had bought them was Babil’s best option.
If he had any shred of decency left, it was to pull the frozen Cadel out of the danger zone. To protect the human Van had sacrificed himself for. That was why Babil tried to run toward the exit, dragging Cadel along like a wooden board.
However.
“Let go.”
“Don’t be stubborn. Now is not the time to—”
“I said let go!”
With strength coming from who knows where, Cadel violently twisted his arm and broke free from Babil’s grasp.
Of course, he knew it was hard to accept running away and leaving a subordinate behind. It had to be agonizing. But a person needed to know when to be stubborn and when to fold. There was nothing more meaningless than rendering someone’s sacrifice in vain out of sheer obstinance.
Exercising his last ounce of patience, Babil turned back toward Cadel. However, as he looked behind him, he completely forgot about grabbing Cadel.
“What is that…?”
The monster’s bud was swelling madly. The main body, stretched taut as if it might explode at any moment, squirmed bizarrely. Moreover, a red aura reminiscent of fresh blood was overflowing through the gaps in the bandages, which had been stretched thin by the internal expansion.
Ron and Babil froze, entirely forgetting to run. And Cadel, who had spotted the sight first, felt goosebumps erupt down his spine.
Could that be… Blood Stream Sword?
Blood Stream Sword.
An awakening skill possessed by the Berserker Van Herdos, activated when his greatsword absorbs a certain amount of blood. The flooding of a crimson aura resembling blood is one of its defining characteristics.
Van Herdos’s attack power differs drastically before and after entering the Blood Stream Sword state, which was why players saw him as a unit whose true value shines brightest in the latter half of a battle.
But undead don’t bleed…
Just as he furrowed his brow at the incomprehensible situation—
A brain-rattling shriek tore through the air as the center of the Mummy Queen, swollen to its absolute limit, finally exploded. A burst of aura, accompanied by a violent gale, swept through the area, dyeing the vicinity bright red.
Cadel reflexively covered his face against the sudden shockwave. Dirt and dust whipped around, carried by a wind laden with the thick stench of blood. As he barely managed to lift his eyelids through the stinging pain, new system windows popped up before his eyes.
Checking their contents, Cadel’s jaw dropped.
[Congratulations! You have cleared the main quest ‘Cursed Land’!]
[Attribute points have increased by 10.]
[Reputation has increased by 5.]
[You have acquired a new title, Mercenary of the Smog Plains.]
[You have acquired a hidden item, Queen’s Bandage.]
He didn’t have the luxury to read the system windows popping up one after another.
“Cleared…?”
That meant only one thing. Cadel urgently sprinted toward where the bud had been.
“Van! Van!”
Fog and aura mixed together, making it impossible to see properly. He almost tripped over protruding stones several times, but he couldn’t afford to slow down.
Eventually, he spotted Van standing blankly in the center of the gruesome wreckage. Seeing his condition, Cadel’s eyes went wide.
“What the hell…! What did you do?!”
Running over in a single breath, Cadel gripped Van’s shoulders tightly. Van was completely drenched, as if he had taken a shower in blood. The breastplate he had been wearing was nowhere to be seen, and his exposed limbs were so covered in gashes that it was hard to even look at them.
Van quietly looked down at Cadel, who was grabbing and shaking him. The red energy swirling in his eyes slowly faded, gradually revealing their original golden hue.
“Did you cut yourself to get blood? Are you insane?! Huh? Do you have a death wish?!”
“Captain…”
“Don’t call me that, you crazy bastard!”
Furious to the core, Cadel screamed at the top of his lungs. But Van didn’t yield. Instead, a smile formed on his blood-soaked, savage face. Cadel was about to scold him, asking what he found so funny.
Suddenly, Van’s eyes clouded over, and his body pitched forward.
“Van…?”
A heavy weight slumped onto his shoulder. He felt a faint breath against the nape of his neck where Van’s lips rested. A precarious breath that seemed like it could stop at any moment. Only then did Cadel realize that Van’s condition was far worse than he had expected.
Blood Stream Sword is originally a skill that naturally activates while slaughtering large numbers of monsters. To ignorantly fuel it with his own blood… This is the worst. At this rate, he’s going to cross the River Styx!
His mind racing, Cadel hoisted Van, who weighed as much as a massive boulder, onto his back. Then, he shouted at Ron and Babil, who were still standing in place, blankly watching them.
“Do you have any potions? A healing potion! Is potion even the right word? Anyway, do you have anything to stop the bleeding right now?!”
“Uh… I do have one potion…”
As Ron stammered his reply, Cadel marched over with terrifying momentum and forcefully yanked his bag.
“Hand it over!”
“Uh? W-wait a minute…”
“And you! Go get a horse from the village right now. As fast as you can!”
Pointed out, Babil wanted to retort, Why should I listen to your orders? but he owed them his life several times over. He wasn’t shameless enough to refuse a request like this.
Eventually nodding, Babil hurriedly ran toward the exit. Meanwhile, Cadel poured the potion he received from Ron into Van’s mouth. The robe he had spread out to lay Van on was soon completely soaked in blood.
“Is there a healer in the village?” Cadel asked, anxiously watching Van.
Ron seemed to think for a moment, then hesitantly shook his head.
“Small villages like Vils Village mostly don’t have healers. Finding a healer who happens to visit by chance is the best we can do. The one pharmacist we have hasn’t been open lately because he’s been feeling unwell…”
“Are you saying there isn’t a single one?”
“…It’s not that there’s absolutely no one.”
Cadel glared at him, demanding a proper answer. At that, Ron, who had been hesitating with a troubled expression, let out a sigh.
“There is a healer belonging to the Stra Family. Of course, to receive treatment from that person, you’d need the viscount’s permission.”
But they wouldn’t give up precious personnel to treat a mere mercenary. That was what Ron was implying.
