Chapter 6

〈 Episode 6 〉Quest 2 – Survival

[Quest 2 begins in 14 hours.]

Asha was able to significantly improve her abilities as a result of training non-stop for 6 days until 15 hours before entering the second quest.

[Character Name: Asha] * Growth Acceleration Buff Applied

Strength: 8

Agility: 6

Durability: 5

Endurance: 9

Mana: 5

It was a training tool she bought by chance, but Asha was able to fully enjoy the growth acceleration buff of the training tool. She felt that the wooden sword, which was quite heavy at first, had become much lighter.

“At this point, I think I’m about the same or better than before.”

Her strength seemed to be about the same or a little better than when she was a man. Considering her previous strength, which seemed like she couldn’t even open a bottle cap properly, it was a remarkable improvement. Her endurance also increased quite a bit during training, but unfortunately, it was difficult to increase her agility properly due to the cramped waiting room.

She was also able to achieve Swordsmanship Level 2. Asha thought it would be better to participate in the quest in perfect condition rather than being exhausted, so she decided to end her training now.

“Huh?”

Poof!

With 8 hours left until the quest started, a suit of armor and a sword appeared in the men’s waiting room. In fact, this armor, rather than armor, was closer to a coat, with thick cloth and leather reinforcing the vital areas. Asha couldn’t help but be disappointed when she saw the newly appeared armor.

“It doesn’t look very good… Wouldn’t it be better to just buy it from the store?”

Hoping for the best, Asha looked around the store, but she stuck out her tongue and gave up on buying it after seeing that chainmail cost 400 coins.

“Haa…”

Asha, who put on the armor as if draping it over herself, felt sweat dripping down even when she was standing still once she had fully equipped the armor and properly held the sword. She walked around armed, trying to get used to her current state. With 3 hours left until entry, Asha bought food and a 15-coin pocket knife from the store and entered the portal.

[Quest 2: Survive for 30 hours]

As soon as Asha entered the quest, a multitude of noises poured into her ears.

“Waaaaah!”

“Ugh!”

“Die! Die, you bastard!”

“Go! Advance!”

‘W-What is this…’

Asha, thrown into the middle of a battlefield, felt dizzy from all the noise and the smell of blood. A man wearing shabby cloth armor, not much different from hers, charged at Asha, who was standing there blankly. Asha barely managed to block the spear that the man thrust at her.

“You goddamn bastard, die!”

Asha, flustered, blocked the man’s spear and was dumbfounded. What grudge did this man have against her that he was charging at her like he was going to die?

“When have I ever seen you to be acting like this to me?!”

Asha confronted the man with half resentment and half anger. Asha was initially flustered by the man’s attacks, which involved thrusting a long spear from a distance, but she aimed for the gap that quickly appeared when he thrust and retracted the spear.

Tap!

When the man thrust his spear again, Asha, who was aiming for that moment, moved to the side and swung her sword before he could retract the spear.

“Guh…”

Unable to retract his spear or confront Asha, his chest was split open in vain. Asha’s sword was sharper than she thought, and a person’s body was weaker and softer than she thought.

Asha’s slash immediately tore through the crude armor and split the man’s chest, and he foamed at the mouth without saying a word, then collapsed with his eyes wide open and died.

‘H-He’s dead…’

Her only experience in life was mincing meat with a kitchen knife, and she felt a chill when she killed someone with a sword. The feeling of cutting through the flesh of a living person with a sword made her hands tremble.

She was standing still in confusion, but the surrounding situation did not leave her alone. Another soldier, seeing his comrade being killed, rushed at her and swung his axe without a word.

“Ugh!”

Asha, who was standing there blankly, failed to dodge the axe properly and was hit on the chest. Asha was jolted awake by the sudden blunt pain.

“Ugh…”

The man relentlessly swung his axe at Asha’s head, and Asha rolled on the ground to barely avoid it. Asha’s whole body was covered in dirt, but she had no time to worry about that with the shadow of death approaching.

Whoosh-! Boom- Clang!

The man’s axe was fast and powerful. Asha never thought that an axe that seemed only good for chopping wood could be so threatening. With its brute force, Asha didn’t even think about counterattacking and tried to avoid being hit by his axe as much as possible, but she couldn’t avoid everything.

Clang!

“Ugh!”

Every time she had no choice but to block the man’s axe, the sword staggered as if it would break at any moment, and Asha’s posture often collapsed because she couldn’t withstand the man’s strength.

Asha barely escaped the situation of being split in half and becoming human firewood several times, and only after the battle subsided was she able to retreat from the battlefield and finally catch her breath.

[Quest 2: Survive for 30 hours Remaining time 22H]

Asha was resting in a tent. Fortunately, she didn’t have to set up the tent, as the baggage train had already set up temporary lodgings. It seemed that Asha was participating in this quest as a mercenary. She was furious that the quest had thrown her in without any explanation this time as well.

‘Doing things that you would only do in a roguelike…’

Asha also enjoyed the roguelike genre, where you die in various ways each time and find a way to clear the game, but she had no desire to be the person in that game. Asha felt dizzy from the smell of a hopeless game that was obvious from start to finish.

‘Shitty difficulty, damn roguelike, terrible interface. Just great…’

Asha, who was cursing the world she had fallen into in her mind, thought of the man she had encountered in the battle just now. Before she knew it, the memory of the first man she killed had faded in Asha’s mind, and the man who had persistently harassed her until the end of the battle was more memorable.

The man was not so strong that Asha couldn’t even face him, but he was an opponent that Asha would have a hard time facing alone head-on.

‘I would have died if I kept fighting.’

Asha’s survival from him, who had more experience and superior physical abilities than her, was just a coincidence.

‘It’s best not to fight, but…’

Asha looked around to see if she could escape from this place, but of course, there were sentries everywhere. She sighed and gave up on deserting.

‘I failed the quest last time, and I can’t fail this time either. I don’t want to die either…’

Asha wanted to succeed in this quest no matter what, just to not die. Fortunately, Asha’s Swordsmanship skill increased to level 3 in this battle. She hoped that the level up would make the quest a little easier.

“Hey, is this your first battle?”

“Yes…”

After the battle, some people spoke to Asha, but she didn’t talk much unless it was a necessary conversation. They were people she wouldn’t see soon anyway, but Asha, who had not yet fully recovered from the shock of killing, found it difficult to treat other people casually. Other mercenaries who understood her didn’t try to approach her forcibly.

The next day, Asha was back on the battlefield. It was a small battlefield with less than 500 people on both sides, but Asha’s breath trembled. Until she entered the battle, countless random thoughts filled Asha’s mind, but when she faced the enemy, those thoughts disappeared without a trace.

“Uwaaaah!”

The memory of almost dying a short time ago yesterday was a good lesson for Asha, and she had not forgotten it yet. Asha ran out, shouting clumsily like the other mercenaries.

In this battle, there were no more clumsy enemies like the man she killed yesterday. Although Asha’s Swordsmanship level had increased, most of the surviving enemies were experienced veterans or mercenaries, and Asha struggled to fight them.

“Uwaaa!”

“Cough…”

Compared to yesterday, the battle was even more chaotic. It was common for two soldiers to fight each other and fall after being stabbed in the back, and they were so mixed up that it was impossible to know who was fighting whom. As the soldiers became more and more mixed up, the number of deaths soared.

“Haa, haa, huh…”

Several hours after the battle began, Asha was still alive, but she was unable to fight properly due to stab wounds on her right forearm and thigh. The reason she was able to hold out was because she picked up a shield during the battle and used it actively.

The enemy’s weapons were more often spears and axes than swords. It was difficult to block the spears that the soldiers were thrusting from a distance with just the sword that Asha was holding. The wound on her thigh was also caused by being stabbed by a spear. Asha responded to the wound by grabbing the spear shaft with her left hand and blowing the soldier’s head off.

She hadn’t learned how to handle a shield properly, but she was able to hold out just by blocking the opponent’s attacks properly, and the shield itself was also an excellent blunt weapon. If Asha’s strength had been even slightly lacking, it would have been difficult to use the shield, but fortunately, her stats were high, so she was able to survive.

It was Asha’s first time using a shield, but when she used the shield, her Swordsmanship skill level 3 was changed to Weapon Skill level 2, so she was able to use the shield relatively familiarly. Anyway, she barely overcame several crises, and soon the battle seemed to be subsiding again.

Asha sensed the change after hearing a different sound.

Thump Thump Thump-

Asha realized that something different had come to the battlefield with the sound that was heard along with the vibration, piercing through the metallic sound and the rough voices of the people.

‘What is that?!’

The ones approaching, shaking the ground, were neither horses nor humans. The ones riding the giant wolves wearing iron armor were giant monsters with green skin at least half again as big as humans.

“Save me! Guh, guheok!”

“Where did these things come from!”

“Don’t break the formation! Reorganize, cough…”

The monsters, who had rushed in in an instant, began to massacre the soldiers along with the wolves they were riding. The commander, who was trying to control the chaos, was pierced by a flying spear and became a skewer stuck in the ground, unable to speak any further.

There were soldiers who counterattacked the monsters, but their attacks could not penetrate the wolves’ iron armor, and the attacks aimed at the riders only made them die more miserably by the enraged monsters. Soldiers were mercilessly swept away regardless of friend or foe, and the collapse of the battlefield was accelerated.

‘Yeah, I thought it was too easy. There’s no way a hopeless game could be this easy.’

Asha could easily guess that if she hesitated even a little, she would end up in the same situation as the soldiers who had been slaughtered earlier. When the alarm in her head rang more intensely than ever, she decided to get out of here first.

There were no longer any humans fighting each other here. Some mercenaries were leaving the battlefield alone or in groups, now that there was no commander to control them. Asha also left the battlefield alone. The plains where hundreds of people were fighting each other were now filled only with screams caused by a one-sided massacre.

‘Where should I go in this flat land…’

Asha ran as hard as she could, but she had no idea where to go. Asha, who had fallen here the day before, was completely ignorant of the nearby geography. The vicinity was a wide plain with not even a single patch of grass. Asha desperately ran and checked the quest time.

“How much time is left?”

[Quest 2: Survive for 30 hours Remaining time 2H]

“There must be more than 2 hours left. It’s still dangerous…”

There was not much time left until clearing, but she would not be able to avoid death even if she met two, no, even one rider. Asha kept moving, hoping that she would not attract the attention of the enemies.

About 30 minutes after Asha fled, the noisy field became quiet. She could intuitively tell that everyone who had remained on the battlefield had died.

‘I hope they were satisfied with that and left… But they definitely won’t leave deserters alone.’

Considering their actions of continuing to massacre without taking prisoners, there was a high probability that they would chase down and finish off those who had escaped.

“There’s no answer other than digging a hole and hiding. I never thought I would miss a palm-sized entrenching tool… Store!”

[The store cannot be used during the quest.]

“Shit…”