The Book Possessed by a Demon – 1

“No, how on earth did I repel something like this?”

After clearing the Headless Armored Cavalry, I painstakingly moved the spear the cavalryman used onto my horse. I planned to use this massive spear and the severed horse head as proof of the subjugation.

It was incredibly strange to me that I could repel such a monstrous weapon without any issues, merely being pushed back a little, especially when it wasn’t just being wielded, but swung with full force while mounted on a horse.

If this were reality, the moment I got hit, I wouldn’t just be repelled; I’d probably be sent flying through the air along with the weapon.

The horse stood still where I had tied its reins, patiently waiting for me. After stroking its mane a few times, I slung the weapon beside the saddle. On the opposite side, I tied the severed horse head.

Even though both were weights I had to painstakingly lift, the horse seemed completely unfazed.

‘One down, for now.’

I easily mounted the horse and took hold of its reins. Although I had cleared the Headless Armored Cavalry, it wasn’t yet time to return to the knight order. Wasn’t there still something I had to do before that?

Finding the item that would lure out that lord bastard.

I rode the horse towards a nearby mountain. This time too, it took nearly half a day just for travel.

When I set off, the sun was clearly high above my head, but by the time I reached my destination, it was slowly setting beyond the horizon with the orange glow of dusk.

I tied the horse to a nearby tree again and approached a massive rock. Behind this enormous rock was the entrance to the dungeon I was looking for.

If one were to play the game in the standard way, discovering the secret behind this rock would only happen after the story entered its middle phase. Before that, there was no reason to come here in the story at all.

Unless you just ignored the main story and kept doing side quests endlessly, that is.

But if you already knew the secret, entering was simple. I pulled out a round stone from my pocket. It was an item dropped by the Headless Armored Cavalry.

This was the key to breaking the dungeon entrance’s seal. A wild horse grazing by the roadside accidentally swallowed it along with some grass, became corrupted by its power, and thus the Headless Armored Cavalry was born.

Holding it, I walked behind the rock and vigorously pushed aside the thick weeds growing around it. In the game, you had to burn this place with fire magic to reveal the secret, but now, I could remove the weeds without needing to set them on fire.

As soon as I cleared all the weeds, something was revealed beneath the dirt ground. It was a stone tablet with a round hole in the center and complex characters carved on both sides.

The characters written on both stone tablets were a warning. Roughly summarized, they read: ‘If you can read these characters, do not break the demon’s seal.’

‘It probably won’t be of much use, though.’

From the start, those bastards who would come all the way to a place like this, located at the very edge of the empire, to explore something, wouldn’t back down just because of such a warning.

I inserted the item dropped by the Headless Armored Cavalry into the round hole in the stone tablet. The item fit perfectly without any gaps. At that moment, the stone tablet emitted a faint white light.

I stepped back a little and observed the rock. The rock rumbled, vibrating, and then cracks appeared on its surface. The cracks, starting from the bottom, grew larger and soon spread across the entire rock.

Not long after, with a crash, the rock collapsed. Broken pieces of stone tumbled down the mountainside. A cloud of dust rose nearby.

‘Finally.’

I waved my arm to disperse the dust. Where the rock had collapsed, a dungeon entrance, precisely large enough for one person to enter, became visible. The item I was looking for was inside.

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

In the game, you’d just put it in a quick slot, carry it around, and when you scrolled the mouse wheel to take it out, it would already be lit. But now, of course, that wasn’t the case, so I had to light it myself.

Since it was my first time using flint, it only lit after I fumbled around a bit.

‘I have an air conditioner, a fan, and fluorescent lights, so why no lighter?’

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

Holding the torch in my left hand and drawing my blood-stained sword with my right, I stood before the dungeon entrance. Around my waist, I also tied a bag filled with provisions, just in case.

In the game, it was a moderately sized dungeon, but now, there’s no telling how much larger it might have become. Just like how the time it took to reach the Headless Armored Cavalry boss field had drastically increased.

I slowly stepped inside. The distinct musty smell characteristic of an old space wafted over me.

‘It doesn’t seem different from the game…’

I didn’t know if there would be any differences inside, but for now, it looked exactly like the game from the outside. I continued walking deeper along the passage.

This was a place where, long ago, the priests and holy knights of the Holy Kingdom had waged a fierce battle against a certain demon, ultimately failing to subjugate it, and as a last resort, sacrificed their lives to seal the cave itself.

That was also why the warning not to break the seal was carved. If a demon powerful enough to defeat the Holy Kingdom were to be unleashed upon the world again, there was no telling what kind of catastrophe would ensue.

However, there was one fact the Holy Kingdom had misunderstood about that demon. That was, the demon sealed here had also suffered immense damage defending against the attacks of the priests and holy knights.

Although it succeeded in forcing the priests and holy knights to retreat after desperately struggling, with its flesh torn to pieces and scattered throughout the dungeon, and its body purified by divine power, the demon itself had also sustained severe injuries.

Most of its power had scattered, reaching a level where natural recovery was impossible. That’s why, even when a wild horse grazing by the roadside swallowed the key to the seal, it hadn’t been able to break the seal until now.

Therefore, to prevent itself from being forced to perish and return to hell, it had been waiting, residing within a book, for someone to enter and break the seal.

If the Holy Kingdom had known that, they would have clung on until the very end, even if it meant more sacrifices. It was an unfortunate turn of events.

‘…I’ll be able to hear that story later.’

And from none other than the demon itself that was sealed here.

It was one of the other features of BraD 4. Since a single quest could be cleared under various conditions, multiple playthroughs were essential to see the entire story.

ㅡUghhh…

From the depths of the cave, a faint, wheezing groan was heard. I aimed my blood-stained sword. It was just beginning.

From a distance, something shambled forward, making a groaning sound. Its flesh was completely rotted away, it wore rusted armor, and carried a sword with all its teeth missing.

It was the corpse of a holy knight who had once fought the demon here. Pieces of the demon’s scattered flesh had attached themselves to these corpses, resurrecting them as undead.

Although it was now a completely rotted corpse, the undead shambled and took a stance, as if to flaunt the fact that it had once been a holy knight.

I, too, temporarily leaned the torch against the floor on my right and gripped my blood-stained sword with both hands. The undead holy knight raised its sword high above its head, then lunged forward, tilting its body sharply.

I rolled to the right to evade the attack and swung my sword at its side. As its worn-out sword struck the ground with a *kang!* sound echoing through the cave, its side burst open with a *peok!*

The bastard turned its body and attacked again, completely unconcerned whether its side was torn open or not. This was the annoying thing about undead-type trash mobs: they didn’t flinch at all when hit by an attack.

Unless it was a massive attack that could send its entire body flying, like with an oversized hammer or greatsword, it wouldn’t suffer any flinching from regular weapons.

It was easier to think of them as being in a constant state of Super Armor against regular weapons.

ㅡTeong!

‘But parrying works.’

After exchanging a few parries, seeing its movements slow down, I pulled out a small shield with my left hand and batted away its swinging sword.

As its body staggered with a crisp *teong* sound, I immediately plunged my blood-stained sword into its neck and twisted.

*Ttuduk*, its head rotated 180 degrees, then spun around and tore off with the sound of tearing flesh. The headless body flailed its arms before collapsing, and the disembodied head clacked its jaw from a distance.

Its name was ‘Battle Fatigue,’ and while I wondered why even undead, which were already corpses, accumulated battle fatigue, I didn’t want to entertain such useless questions. I just used it because it was possible.

I picked up the torch I had leaned nearby and nudged the corpse with my foot to check if the item I was looking for had dropped. But there was nothing particularly noticeable.

‘Tsk, a bust then.’

It seemed I would have to wander around here for a while longer. If I were lucky, the first two I encountered would each drop one, allowing me to go straight to the book.

From a distance, I heard more of the corpses shambling. Well, it was fine. After all, I only needed to collect two. I could probably get two with just a few minutes of effort.

Back when I had to collect all 100 to clear an achievement, I almost threw my mouse, but compared to that, this was nothing.

ㅡUghhhhhh…

This time, two undead wearing priestly robes walked out. I set the torch down beside me again and gripped my blood-stained sword with both hands.

The fundamental rule of all gacha is to keep rolling until you get what you want.