The Player Who Stands Above All

Chapter 256

"Tsk, I knew it from the map, but it's not a scale that can be easily explored."

Noah clicked his tongue softly as he looked at the forest.

Perhaps because it had grown by sucking up water, sunlight, and the blood of numerous lives in a place rich in ki, the forest enveloped them in a deep green, as if it wouldn't let them go.

The faces of the soldiers walking through the forest were stiff with tension because the green was filled with an unpleasant silence.

"Tsk! Hey, you guys!"

However, in the eyes of the paladin who knew nothing, it only seemed that they were scared of the forest's atmosphere.

"Fear is contagious! Nothing has happened yet, but if you're scared now, are you planning to wet your pants when the enemy appears?"

At the paladin's scolding, one of the soldiers lowered his head and made an excuse.

"S-Sorry. It's just because of my past experience of entering the forest..."

"Hmm? You've been in this forest before?"

"Ah, yes. Before I became a soldier, I was a hunter, following my father..."

"A hunter, you say..."

At the soldier's words, the paladin pondered for a moment and then asked.

"Do you happen to know anything about this forest?"

"That... I'm sorry, but I don't know much either. I just barely remember my father telling me never to enter the deep parts of the forest because it's a den of magical beasts..."

"Tsk, I gave you a chance to prove your ability, but you only prove your incompetence? I was a fool to think you might be of some use."

The paladin who said that frowned as if he had just wasted his time and returned to his original position.

At that, the soldier couldn't even say anything and bowed his head deeply.

Even knights grovel and bow their heads to paladins.

But he, a mere soldier, had gotten away without any particular punishment even though he had displeased the paladin, so he was grateful that he had survived for now.

'I brought them all just in case, but as expected, the soldiers are useless. I should just use them as bait to lure magical beasts until they die.'

And Noah, who had been listening to the conversation between the paladin and the soldier from the side, quietly decided on the use of the soldiers and moved his feet.

"Hmm?"

As he continued to walk through the forest, Noah felt something enter his senses and stopped his steps.

A little late, the paladins also stopped their steps and drew the swords at their waists.

Shwaaaak-

The moment they drew their swords, something poured down from the top of the trees, aiming for them.

However, they were cut by the swords swung by the paladins and shattered into pieces.

Poof-!

Then, the thing that touched the sword burst like a water balloon, and the knights and soldiers who were not prepared were hit by it and got their bodies wet.

"What's this?"

"Fruit? It's purple and strangely shaped, but it seems to be a fruit."

"Then this is fruit juice... the smell is unbelievably terrible."

The paladins looked at the purple fruit juice splattered on their bodies with frowning eyes and then turned their eyes towards the direction the fruit had flown from to find the culprit who had caused them such an unpleasant experience.

Ukyak-! Ukyakyakyak-!

The culprits who had thrown the fruit at them from the top of the trees were a troop of monkeys with four hands and a long, trailing tail.

"Is that a Cranky Monkey? Why are they like that?"

"Do you know something?"

When the soldier who had introduced himself as a hunter a little while ago muttered something, the paladin who had heard it like a ghost asked.

At that, the soldier muttered with a tense face.

"Ah, yes. Those guys are called Cranky Monkeys. They're guys who hunt in a peculiar way, by hitting their prey with poisonous fruit."

"Poison?"

At the hunter soldier's words, the knight who had been hit by the fruit head-on widened his eyes.

"Ah, it's fine. Even if it's poison, it's a paralyzing poison, and since it didn't directly touch your skin, you should be fine."

"Ahem, is that so?"

At those words, the knight tried hard to calm his chest and let out a dry cough.

"Ignore that guy and continue what you were saying. You, you muttered as if it were strange when you first saw those monkeys. Why was that?"

"Ah, it was because their condition was a bit strange."

The hunter soldier, perhaps because he was nervous, spoke quickly in an urgent voice.

"Originally, those guys do move in groups, but that's only with guys of the same fur color, but it's not like that now, is it?"

Certainly, looking up, the fur colors were quite colorful.

"On top of that, it bothers me that those guys are extremely agitated. This is clearly not their territory, and we're the ones who were attacked..."

"That's obvious."

Sreureung-

Noah, showing off the luster of his armor that had not lost its light in the slightest, drew the sword at his waist.

"They used a shallow trick to send those monkeys to us."

Noah, who had said that, was smiling faintly as if it were ridiculous.

Woooong-

The sword Noah had drawn was enveloped in a white light.

At that moment, Noah quickly swung his sword towards the empty air, and the white light that had been on his sword flew like a bird and cut the necks and arms of the Cranky Monkeys in its trajectory.

The knights and soldiers, who had seen him cut the necks of the Cranky Monkeys from a distance in a single blow, widened their eyes in shock.

What was the decisive difference that divided the level of power between a knight and a paladin?

It was the presence or absence of the knowledge distributed by the Church.

The Church had devoured several worlds until now and had taken the knowledge of those worlds.

The Church had repeatedly dismantled and combined the knowledge obtained like that to make it completely their own.

"All units! Exterminate the annoying monkeys above!"

"""Yes, sir!!!"""

The swordsmanship that the Church had created with great care for the paladins unfolded in their hands.

The knights leaped onto the trees where the Cranky Monkeys were in a single jump and swung their swords indiscriminately.

Ukyakyakyak--!!!

The Cranky Monkeys let out their anger and rushed at the paladins, swinging their claws, but the difference in power was too great.

"The paladins will deal with the guys running on the trees! The knights and soldiers will form groups as previously decided and deal with the guys who have fallen down."

"Yes, understood!"

At Noah's shout, the knights and soldiers moved quickly and dealt with the Cranky Monkeys that had fallen to the bottom of the trees, injured.

Each one of them had the skill of a knight, but they could not resist the sword of the paladins led by Noah.

"To think he has the skill to send out a sword of magic by swinging his sword... I expected it, but it seems he didn't get the position of a paladin commander for nothing."

Tafra, watching the paladin order through the trees in the forest, clicked her tongue softly as if in disappointment.

When she checked other places just in case, all the other places were also successfully blocking the attacks of the magical beasts.

"I went to the trouble of making the magical beasts go berserk and sending them to those guys, but I never thought they would block them this well. I thought I could at least reduce the number of soldiers."

As Tafra was feeling disappointed, the blue earring on her ear shone faintly, and a voice flowed out.

-Tafra unni!

Bodra was currently roaming the forest with the vigilante members.

The area protected by the vigilante members included not only their village but also this forest.

They usually managed the ecosystem of the magical beasts in the forest and, through that, prevented major fights between the magical beasts, preventing the village from getting caught up in unnecessary territorial disputes.

This secret method was one of the reasons they had been able to survive in this forest until now.

Therefore, they naturally had a good grasp of the ecosystem of this forest, and today, they were using that knowledge to cause a commotion here and there in the forest.

The problem was that they couldn't control the commotion they had caused.

-Unni! Is the village okay? Did any of those magical beast guys go that way?

Bodra asked with worry, in case the enraged magical beasts had gone to the village because of what they had done.

At Bodra's worry, Tafra smiled as if to say it was okay to be relieved and said.

"Don't worry. There's no problem on this side."

-But...

"It's really fine."

Tafra's voice, as she comforted Bodra, was mixed with a bit of bewilderment, as if she couldn't believe it herself.

"A few of them came to the village, but they all turned tail and ran away right in front of it."

Tafra said that and turned back her memory, recalling the time when they were making a plan among themselves in preparation for an attack.

"As expected, to reinforce our forces, we have no choice but to destroy the forest's ecosystem and use the magical beasts, even if we have to take some risks..."

Knock, knock-

"Huh? Who is it?"

"What is it? There shouldn't be anyone coming now."

Tafra, Midra, and Bodra, who were in the middle of a meeting, stopped their conversation for a moment at the sudden knock.

As the two looked at the door with curious eyes, Midra moved his aura and opened the door.

"Hello."

"It's been a while."

Then, Mio and Rwen, who were standing in front of the door, gave a simple greeting to the three and entered the meeting room.

"First, I was going to ask why you came all of a sudden... but I should ask something else first. What have you guys been doing lately to look like that?"

"Haa, there's something."

"I feel like I'm going to die these days."

The two looked quite disheveled, as if they had been rolling around on the ground.

At that, Midra's eyes shone quietly.

Because he already knew that these two had finished their fight with the vigilante group and had started their training.

"I don't care if you guys are having a hard time or not. Why are you here?"

Bodra said sharply, looking at the two.

The moment the possibility that the Church's attack was related to them arose, Bodra's favorability towards the two had pierced through the floor and gone down.

For reference, the moment Bodra's favorability towards the two had hit rock bottom was the moment the two had defeated all the vigilante members.

"The master told us to come, so I don't know the details either."

"The master? Did that guy come out of the underground prison?"

At Mio's words, Midra asked in surprise.

At Midra's words, Rwen shook her head and denied it.

"No, that person is not our master. Our master is a different person."

"...Weren't there only three of you?"

"Well, I wonder?"

At Bodra's words, Mio shrugged her shoulders.

"Unfortunately, we don't know much about that part either."

At Mio's answer to the simple question, Midra and Bodra fell silent.

Because the moment they heard Mio's words, a memory that had been bothering them a little had popped up in their minds.

As they were continuing their thoughts like that, Rwen, who had been quiet, looked at them and said.

"The reason we came here is to add a few words to your meeting in place of our master's mouth."

"Huh? A meeting, you say? What is that..."

Midra, hiding his surprised heart, tried to deny Rwen's words with a nonchalant expression.

Well, that was because they had never shared any information about the current situation with Mio and Rwen.

However, Rwen continued to speak with an attitude that said it didn't matter whether Midra denied it or not.

"For reference, you don't need to explain it separately. Thanks to our master, we were able to hear the conversation you were having from the beginning."

"...What?"

At Rwen's words, the three widened their eyes as if they couldn't believe it.

If her words were true, it meant that they had been sharing the same space with a being whose identity they didn't know and whose presence they couldn't feel from the beginning until now.

"Haa, so what? Did you come to threaten us for not sharing information?"

"Why don't you just sit down and listen?"

At Bodra's cynical words, Mio said in an equally cynical voice.

At that, as Bodra and Mio were growling at each other with fierce glares, Rwen grabbed Mio's hand with one hand to stop her and opened her mouth.

"We didn't come to say anything in particular. On the contrary, we came to give our own help in the fight against the Church."

At those words, Bodra's sharp gaze turned to Rwen.

"So those Church guys came all the way here chasing you, right?"

"That's not... huh?"

"Eh?"

The moment they were about to naturally deny it, the two suddenly stopped talking and looked somewhere.

And as if they didn't know if this was right, they said with a hesitant tone.

"Uh, that's right. It seems they came chasing us."

"You bastards!"

"Ah, what do you want me to do!"

As Bodra got annoyed and growled as if she were about to attack the two at any moment, Mio also growled back at Bodra, as if not to be outdone.

"Your subordinate started a fight with us first, and that's why this happened! If you're still not happy, let's have a go!"

Twitch-!

"Oh yeah! It seems your fear has disappeared after dealing with my subordinates, but I'll press that confidence down like your flat chest, you shorty brat!"

Twitch-!

"What, you bastard?! Ha! It seems you're engrossed in playing the leader in the village, but should I pull out that confidence along with your hair?!"

"Try it if you can!"

"Oh yeah, you come outside right now!"

Bodra and Mio exuded momentum towards each other and each grabbed their own weapons.

"Aigoo..."

"Oh dear..."

Watching the scene, Rwen and Tafra quietly pondered how to stop these two.

(End of Chapter)