novelraw Chapter 30 : The Twin Gorge (3)
Chapter 30 : The Twin Gorge (3)
Chapter 30: The Twin Gorge (3)
The crescent moon hung crooked in the night sky as the villagers of Ekul huddled together in the village chief's house for an emergency meeting. The chief had just finished explaining the deal he'd struck with the mercenary, and the mood in the room was tense.
"...So he's agreed to take care of the monsters for twenty thousand Luden. I'm sorry, but we're going to need to collect more money to cover the fee. Anyone have questions?"
Every face in the room had gone stiff as stone. One person spoke up, and the floodgates opened; suddenly, everyone was voicing their complaints.
"How does that mercenary even know there's another monster? I'm certain there was only one when I went and saw for myself!"
"Twenty thousand Luden is way too much, chief... We barely scraped together ten thousand, and that was with everyone giving what little they had. If we have to collect more, how are we supposed to make it to harvest season...?"
"Can't you talk to the mercenary again? He's human, isn't he? Surely he's got some compassion?"
"This is outrageous. He's taking advantage of people in a desperate situation just to line his own pockets..."
The chief listened quietly for a while, his frown deepening with every word. When the grumbling finally died down, he rubbed his face wearily. These people had lived their whole lives stuck in this backwater village, but damn if they weren't being spectacularly stupid right now.
"Are you all idiots?"
"..."
"Let me ask you this. Which one of you is willing to take twenty thousand Luden and risk your life fighting that monster?"
Silence.
The room went dead quiet.
People looked at each other awkwardly, suddenly finding the floor very interesting. The chief let out a low sigh.
"Just because it's not your life on the line doesn't mean you should treat someone else's like it's worthless. Even if they're making money off it, a life is precious to everyone. How would you feel if someone came along and started haggling over the price of your life?"
The man who'd suggested negotiating and the woman who'd cursed the mercenary both hung their heads in shame. But the middle-aged man who'd actually gone to the gorge still looked unconvinced.
"But chief, doesn't it seem strange that there are two monsters? My friends and I all saw it clearly and there was only one. How does that mercenary know something we don't when we actually went there ourselves?"
"I can't say I know the answer to that. But there's one thing I'm absolutely certain of."
"..."
"If that mercenary gets pissed off, he could slaughter every last one of us, take our money, and leave without breaking a sweat."
The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees.
Everyone gasped at once. Eyes went wide with horror, and goosebumps rippled across arms. Someone let out a loud hiccup of fear.
The chief is absolutely right. That man had taken down an entire band of mercenaries who had terrorized the village single-handedly. If he'd wanted to, he could've caused far worse havoc than those dead bastards ever did.
"...Of course, the chances of that happening are slim. Every Atalan mercenary I've met valued their honor and kept their word. But that doesn't mean we can treat this man carelessly."
"..."
"Listen carefully, everyone. This is an opportunity we can't afford to pass up. When are we ever going to see another mercenary this powerful who means us no harm pass through our village? Money lost can be earned back with time. But a lost opportunity? That's gone forever."
People lowered their gazes, sinking deep into thought.
It didn't take long for them to decide.
They didn't like it much, but there was no arguing with the chief's logic. One by one, the villagers agreed to pay the twenty thousand Luden.
Only a handful of them realized just how close they'd come to the edge of a cliff and how narrowly they'd managed to step back from it.
***
Spring rain fell after what felt like forever.
The sky was a murky grayish-white, and the earth soaked up the moisture greedily. Fresh green shoots reaching up from the soil glistened with droplets. The gentle breeze carried the rain in soft, diagonal lines. It was warm, and the rain wasn't heavy; it’s the kind of weather people who'd been thirsting for spring would welcome with open arms.
Unfortunately, the group trudging along the path had no leisure to enjoy it. Their mismatched footsteps were heavy with tension. The village youths leading the way and Duncan carrying the supplies kept stealing anxious glances at the barbarian.
The warrior preparing for battle paid no attention to their stares. He simply checked his weapons with cool detachment.
He pressed his thumb against the blade of Mosquito. The edge sliced through his skin as easily as paper. The blade had felt a bit dull, so he'd sharpened it on a whetstone last night and oiled it with camellia oil.
Seeing the rain now, he was glad he'd done it ahead of time.
The throwing axes didn't need much maintenance.
Despite smashing through countless thick skulls and piercing scale armor as tough as iron, the axe heads were still as sharp as the day they'd been forged. He found it almost ironic that a race capable of making such excellent weapons had somehow lost to humans.
His outfit was a simple mix of a cloth tunic with laces at the chest and leather-reinforced pants. The villagers had quickly altered them to fit Kadim's measurements. He'd thrown away his old clothes, and he wasn't bothering with armor as it would just get in the way. Besides, armor wouldn't help much against what was waiting for them anyway.
Twin Gorge.
Kadim knew the place well.
It had been quite the landmark in the game, and he'd actually passed through it during his first playthrough.
The gorge was steeped in legends that had been passed down for generations.
Something, something about twins breaking a promise to a wizard, or earning a god's wrath, or killing each other in a fight?
Whatever the lore, they all ended the same way. The cursed twins transformed into monsters, reincarnating eternally to guard both entrances of the gorge.
But the truth revealed through the game's quest line had nothing to do with curses. This place just happened to be a perfect environment for monsters, so they kept showing up. And the reason monsters always appeared in pairs wasn't because of reincarnating twins, it was because male and female pairs nested here to breed.
‘Truth is sometimes more mundane than we'd like to believe. Though honestly, this place became famous not because of the legend, but because of the rewards...’
The monsters of Twin Gorge gave pretty generous EXPs. And true to the legend, monsters would regularly respawn at both entrances. Players could just wait and farm them for more experience than they'd get wandering around hunting. Naturally, it became a well-known leveling spot.
Back in his first playthrough and even now, Kadim couldn't gain experience points like in a game. But this time, he'd at least secured a nice twenty thousand Luden as payment. Even if he didn't need the money urgently, more is always better. He'd have to pay Duncan sooner or later, so he might as well save up some money.
Hunting monsters was as familiar to him as hunting demons. It was also a good chance to test how much his body had grown. He'd brought a waterskin just in case, but Kadim planned to try taking down the monster without drinking any demon blood if possible.
"If you keep going down this path, you'll reach the gorge. We'll wait here for you, sir mercenary."
The village youths called it quits even though they were still quite far from the gorge. From the looks on their faces, they were clearly scared shitless. Only Duncan, playing the role of pack mule, continued following Kadim.
After trudging down the muddy trail for a bit, a towering landscape soon appeared.
Forest on one side, rock on the other.
Two massive cliff faces rise up like the shoulders of a giant draped in formal robes. Between them, a narrow passage cut deep as if a mountain-sized axe had cleaved the earth.
And right at the mouth of the path, not caring one bit about the rain, was a monster.
"Wait here, Duncan. When you think the fight's over, come find me, but be smart about it."
"B-be careful, my lord!"
Kadim left Duncan behind and approached the monster alone.
The closer he got, the more he realized just how massive the thing is. It stood as tall as an ancient tree, with a hulking, grotesque body. Its grayish-blue skin looked as hard as stone. The tiny eyes above its hooked nose weren't funny so much as deeply unsettling.
The gatekeeper of Twin Gorge.
A troll.
-Grrrlk, grrk...?
When he got close, it tilted its head in confusion exactly like he'd seen before. It almost felt like he'd traveled back in time.
‘Hmm?’
But something wasn't quite the same.
It looked the same on the outside, but there was a tiny difference. It was faint, but that dark, heavy vibe coming off it...
'...Is that demonic energy?'
No fucking way.
If the troll had transformed into a demonic beast due to demonic energy, there should be obvious changes to its appearance. But the creature looked pretty much the same as before.
Besides, this aura was far weaker than actual demonic energy. If demonic energy was like thick fog, this was barely more than candle smoke. It felt diluted, like something had been watered down and mixed with other things...
...
He couldn't figure out what had changed. But that wasn't what mattered right now.
—GRRRRLK, GRRRRLK!!
Killing this troll comes first.
‘I guess I'll figure out what's different once I start cutting it open...’
The troll charged with earth-shaking footsteps. It was holding a whole uprooted tree in its hands like a club.
Kadim waited for it to get closer.
A troll's defining traits were its thick hide and regeneration ability. But it wasn't armored like the Hydra, and its regeneration wasn't strong enough to repair vital organs. Cut off its head or burst its heart, and the troll would die easily enough.
So Kadim aimed for the head.
He waited until it got close enough that its mediocre reflexes wouldn't be able to dodge.
—KWARRRRRRRGH!!
When it had closed the distance to just over ten paces, the troll prepared to swing the tree in its hands. At the same instant, a metallic whirlwind shot from Kadim's hand, cutting through the rain.
THWACK—!
His aim was perfect, but the troll raising its arms to swing created a variable. Its forearm blocked its face, and the axe only managed to shred one of the troll's arms into ribbons instead.
SQUELCH!
—KWOCK, KWOARRRRRRRGH!!
As the axe got stuck by the regenerating flesh, Kadim didn't waste time being disappointed. Fights are always messy. Better to get in another hit than to stand around wishing.
He dashed low beneath the thrashing troll with Mosquito in his right hand, a fistful of mud in his left.
The distracted troll lost track of its enemy closing in.
He got behind it and slashed in a blur of motion.
SQUELCH!
The troll's heel was much thinner than the rest of its hide. The blade cut right through skin and tendon, practically gulping down the fresh blood. Before it could start healing, Kadim slapped the handful of mud right into the gash.
—KWOARRRRRGH!!
The mud particles prevented the tendons and flesh from knitting back together. The troll's legs gave out and it wobbled to its knees. Even then, it swung the tree at Kadim, but it was a beat too slow. He'd already pivoted to the other side and was cutting through the other heel.
SQUELCH!
He scattered mud on this wound to block its regeneration.
The troll's body completely lost balance.
Kadim darted away from its fall trajectory, then shot back in like an arrow.
—KWOCK, KWOCK, KWOARRR!!
The troll flailed its last good arm in desperation.
Kadim used that force against it.
He held his blade vertically and pierced through the descending wrist, then yanked the blade sideways.
Muscle and flesh tore apart in ragged chunks, and blood and meat sprayed everywhere.
SQUELCH!
—KUWAAAAAAAAGH!!
The troll crashed to the ground
It now had no functioning limbs left.
Every time it tried to move anything, only muddy blood came gushing out.
The warrior didn't miss this opening.
He swiftly retrieved the axe embedded in the arm and delivered the finishing blow.
CRUNCH—!
Blood erupted from the thick cross-section, but the neck was so massive he couldn't sever it in one blow.
Kadim went at it like a lumberjack felling a tree and struck the neck repeatedly.
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
Finally, the severed head rolled across the mud and a sigh-like sound leaked from the exposed throat.
—gghhhaaa...
The trembling limbs went still.
The twitching wounds that had been trying to regenerate stopped moving.
Lukewarm rain poured down on the monster's cooling corpse.
"..."
He'd won easily even without demon blood.
Kadim wiped the blood from his face with rainwater and approached the corpse carefully.
It was no different from any other troll he'd seen before.
Actually, killing it had been even easier thanks to the rain. Learning that mud worked better than dry dirt for stopping regeneration was an unexpected bonus.
‘...So what the hell was that aura?’
As the troll died, the aura was rapidly fading too.
He quickly cut through the hide and dug into it.
He cut through the membrane and flesh and felt the squishy guts. He grabbed each organ, even squeezed the long intestines completely empty. He even saw bloody shit come out the other end, but there was nothing weird.
It had no sign that it had eaten any demon parts.
But Kadim caught something.
Just as he was about to look away, a dark shadow dissolved in the pooled blood of the abdominal cavity.
"...!"
"M-my lord? What are you doing... Huh? Ugh! Gak, uweck, gwwaaack!"
Duncan had somehow come up beside him.
Seeing the troll's disemboweled corpse, he violently threw up.
Kadim didn't have the luxury of paying attention to him.
He hurried off.
The other one. He needed to get to the other side of the gorge and examine that one too.
***
The bouncing raindrops pattered incessantly against the leaves of the great trees. The young men from the village were taking shelter from the rain beneath them, making idle chatter.
"Do you really think that mercenary can take down that monster by himself?"
"Hell if I know. If he can't, we save twenty thousand Luden."
"The money's not the problem. The problem is we might be trapped in this backwater for the rest of our lives..."
They were all on the fence about whether the mercenary could actually pull this off.
Defeating that wandering mercenary company single-handedly was certainly an incredible feat. But facing a troll was a whole different beast. Common sense said you needed an army or a mage to take down something like that.
"Come on, there's no way anyone can kill a troll on his own..."
"I think he can do it. Didn't you guys see him throw that axe?"
"That kind of axe works on people, sure, but it's not gonna do much against a monster..."
These youths who'd never even killed a boar, let alone a monster, launched into heated debate. Then someone suddenly pointed upward.
"Hey, what's that?"
"Huh?"
"Wait, is that smoke?"
Black soot was spreading across the grayish-white sky.
They all frowned at once.
"That's... that's the direction of the Forest of No Return. Fire caused by lightning, maybe?"
"Shouldn't we go check if it's a big fire?"
"Relax, it's raining. What's there to worry about? Give it a minute and it'll put itself out..."
He had a point. The sky was gray, and the rain wasn't stopping. Any normal fire would die out on its own.
But this was no ordinary forest fire.
The smoke grew thicker and darker. It was like acrid claws scratching at the sky. Above the trees, the sharp fangs of a firestorm shot up. Far from dying out, the fire was spreading more and more ferociously with each passing moment.
"What the hell? The fire's growing..."
"Why? Why is that happening? Why won't it go out?"
"Shit! The flames are gonna reach the village at this rate..."
Crimson light reflected in the village youths' widening eyes.
Hellfire was tearing through the forest that had been a demon's own backyard.