chapter 22

"No, how the hell did I bounce something like this off?"

After clearing the headless armored cavalry, I moved the cavalryman's spear to my horse while flailing around. I planned to use this huge spear and the severed horse head as evidence of my subjugation.

It was amazing to see that he was able to deflect the attack without any problems, even though he was not just swinging this vicious weapon around, but swinging it with all his might while mounted on a horse.

If this were real, I would have bounced off the bullet the moment I got hit and gone flying through the air with the weapon.

The horse stood still where I had tied the reins, waiting for me. After stroking the mane a few times, I hung the weapon on the side of the saddle. On the other side, I tied the severed head.

Even though both of them were heavy things that I had to carry while struggling, the horse seemed to be indifferent.

'One thing's done for now.'

I jumped on the horse and grabbed the reins. I had cleared the headless iron cavalry, but it wasn't time to return to the knights yet. There was still work to be done before that.

Finding something to lure that lord out.

I rode my horse up to a nearby mountain. This time, too, the journey alone took almost half a day.

When we set off, the sun was clearly overhead, but when we arrived at our destination, it was slowly setting behind the horizon with a crimson glow.

I tied my horse back to a nearby tree and headed toward the giant rock. Behind this giant rock was the entrance to the dungeon I was looking for.

If you play the game the right way, you'll only find out about the secret behind this after the story reaches its midpoint. Before that, there was no reason to come here in the story.

If you don't progress the story and just do a bunch of side quests, then it's another story.

But if you already know the secret, getting inside was easy. I took out a round stone from my pocket. It was an item dropped by a headless armored cavalryman.

This is the key to unlock the dungeon entrance, but a wild horse passing by accidentally swallowed it while grazing on grass, and was consumed by its power, giving birth to a headless armored cavalryman.

I walked behind the rock with it and started to rip apart the thick grass growing around it. In the game, you have to burn this place with fire magic to reveal the secret, but now I can get rid of the grass without having to set it on fire.

As they dug through the grass, something was revealed beneath the dirt. It was a stone tablet with a round hole in the middle and intricate writing carved on both sides of it.

The writing on both stone tablets was a warning. In short, it said, 'If you can read this writing, do not break the demon's seal.'

'It may not be of much use, though.'

In the first place, those who come to this place, located at the very edge of the empire, to explore something would not back down after seeing a warning like that.

I inserted the item dropped by the Headless Ironclad into the round hole of the stone slab. The item fitted perfectly. Then the stone slab began to glow with a faint white light.

I stepped back a little and observed the rock. The rock began to vibrate with a rumbling sound, and cracks appeared on its surface. The cracks started at the bottom and grew larger, soon spreading across the entire rock.

Soon after, the rock collapsed with a creaking sound. The broken pieces of stone rolled down the mountainside. Dust rose nearby.

'at las.'

I waved my arm to scatter the dust. From where the rock had collapsed, I could see the entrance to a dungeon just big enough for one person to fit through. The thing I was looking for was inside.

After making sure there were no monsters nearby, I returned to my horse and took out a torch from the saddle.

In the game, you could just put it in the quick slot and take it out by turning the mouse wheel, and it would come out lit, but of course that can't be the case now, so I had to light it myself.

This was my first time using flint, so after a bit of fiddling I was finally able to get the fire started.

'There's an air conditioner, a fan, and even a fluorescent light, but why isn't there a lighter?'

Is it because this is a world where flame magic exists?

He stood in front of the dungeon entrance, holding a torch in his left hand and a bloody sword in his right. He also had a bag filled with food on his waist in case of an emergency.

It used to be a decent sized dungeon in the game, but I don't know how big it has become now. Like the time it takes to get to the Headless Armored Cavalry boss field has definitely increased.

I stepped inside slowly. The musty smell typical of old spaces hit me.

'It doesn't seem to be any different from the game...'

There might be something different inside, but from the outside, it looked exactly like the game. I continued walking down the hallway.

This is where, a long time ago, the priests and knights of the Holy Kingdom fought a bloody battle against a certain demon, but failed to subdue it, so as a last resort, they sacrificed their lives and sealed the cave itself.

That was also the reason why the warning to not break the seal was engraved. If a demon so powerful that the Holy Nation failed to subdue it were to be released into the world again, it is impossible to know what kind of catastrophe would strike.

However, there was one thing that the Holy Nation had misunderstood about the demon. That was that the demon sealed here also took a great deal of damage from blocking the attacks of the priests and knights.

Even though the flesh on his entire body was torn to pieces and scattered throughout the dungeon, and his body was purified by divine power, he struggled in every way possible and succeeded in forcing the priests and paladins to retreat, but the demon himself was also seriously injured.

Most of the power was dispersed to the point where it could not be naturally restored, so even though a wild horse passing by swallowed the key to the seal, the seal could not be broken until now.

Therefore, in order to prevent it from being destroyed and returning to hell, it was kept in a book, waiting for someone to come in and break the seal.

If Seongguk had known that, he would have clung to it until the end, even if it meant making more sacrifices. It was a shame.

'... ... You can hear that story later.'

And it was directly to the demon himself who was sealed here.

Another feature of Blizzard 4 was that you could clear one quest with multiple conditions, so you had to play through it multiple times to see the entire story.

-Euuuuuuu… …

A muffled groan was heard from the other side of the cave. A bloody sword was pointed. It was just beginning.

Something was walking towards me from over there, making a groaning sound. Its flesh was completely rotted away, it was wearing rusted armor, and it was holding a sword with all its teeth missing.

It was the corpse of a paladin who had fought against demons here in the past. The pieces of demonic flesh scattered across the corpses were attached to each one, resurrecting them as dead.

Although he was now a rotten corpse, the dead man took a stance as if to show off the fact that he had once been a knight.

I also leaned the torch against the right floor for a moment and held the bloody sword with both hands. The dead knight raised his sword high above his head and lunged forward.

Rolling to the right, he escaped the attack and swung his sword at his side. The bastard's worn-out sword hit the floor with a thud! The sound echoed through the cave, and his side burst open.

The bastard turned around and attacked again, not caring at all whether his side was cut off or not. This was the annoying thing about the corpse-type mobs. They didn't get stiff at all when they were attacked.

It didn't receive any stiffness from normal weapons, except for huge attacks like the great hammer or great sword that could blow the entire body far away.

It would be convenient to think of it as a state of permanent super armor application against normal weapons.

-Turtle!

'But parrying doesn't work.'

After exchanging a few parry attacks, I noticed that the bastard's movements had slowed down, so I took out the small shield in my left hand and blocked the sword that was swinging at me.

As the bastard's body lurched with a loud thud, I stuck my bloody sword into his neck and twisted it.

Thump, the head spun 180 degrees and with a sound of flesh being torn, it spun around and was torn off. The headless body flailed its arms and collapsed, and the disembodied head snapped its mouth in the distance.

The name is 'Battle Fatigue', but I was curious as to why battle fatigue would accumulate even on the dead who were already corpses, but I didn't want to have unnecessary questions. I just used it because it was possible.

I picked up the torch that had been placed next to me and kicked the corpse to see if the item I was looking for had dropped. But there was nothing particularly noticeable.

'Tsk, it was a waste of time.'

I guess I'll have to wander around here for a while. If I'm lucky, the first two girls I meet might drop one each and I can go straight to the book.

I could hear more corpses being thrown from over there. Well, it was okay. There were only two that I had to collect anyway. I could probably get them in a few minutes.

When I had to collect all 100 of them to complete the achievement before, I almost threw my mouse, but compared to then, this wasn't a big deal.

-Eu ...

This time, two dead men in priestly attire walked out. They put the torches aside again and held bloody swords in both hands.

The basic principle of all gacha is to keep spinning until you get something.