Chapter 62

Chapter 62

Investing Through the Status Window.

Episode 62: Crisis And Cooperation (2).

The reddish sunset painted the whole world in a blood-red color. If it were the usual Allen, he might have thought, indeed, nature is beautiful, as if appreciating a piece of art, but today, the color of the sunset felt eerily strange… as if foreseeing a future that would come later.

“Master, you should rest now. You’ve been at it since this morning.”

Old Dog Kalisman had been advising Allen, who had been holding the helm since the morning, to take a rest, but Allen lightly smiled and declined.

“This is all I can do. It’s not like I can directly help in a fight. I have to work hard at least on this.”

“What will we do if you collapse?”

“I won’t collapse. Don’t worry. As if I wouldn’t know my own physical condition. ……Alright, alright. Oi, next turn—!”

In the end, Allen couldn’t withstand the intense gaze of Kalismam and let go of the rudder.

Around that time, the rowing also stopped, and people finally got a long break. Wherever there was a bit of space on or below the deck, they would sprawl, putting whatever they could into their mouths and chewing it down.

The night they hoped wouldn’t come without fail today as well. The red that had spread in all directions hid its trace, and the world slowly fell asleep under a black blanket.

The boat, with its rowing ceased, moved very slowly along the river. Taking turns at the rudder was a task shared among the people. They had to carefully steer to prevent the boat from running aground on the riverbank’s sand….

If there were no threats, they would have moored the boat by the riverbank and slept on land, but in the current situation dominated by the necromancers, they couldn’t afford such a luxury. Despite the discomfort, they had no choice but to live on the boat until they reached a city.

Gently rippling on the water’s surface, the distorted moon was reflected.

Standing at the boat’s bow, keeping watch, Inkist Arnold saw something wriggling on the distant riverbank and, startled, hurried to his group leader. Allen, who had been tossing and turning for a while, unable to sleep, had just fallen into a light doze when Arnold’s call awakened him.

“What’s the matter?”

Allen asked, shaking his tired head slightly with a hoarse voice.

“You might want to see this, Group Leader…!”

The urgent voice of the inkist pricked Allen’s ears. It was then that the group leader’s faint consciousness snapped back into focus, clearing his vision. He sensed something was amiss.

Allen, along with Arnold, hurriedly moved towards the bow’s railing and turned his head in the direction Arnold was pointing with his finger. Narrowing his eyes and straining his sight, he caught a glimpse of something far off in the distance.

“……Ah…….”

Far away, on the riverbank, what swarmed like a horde of ants was undoubtedly a group of ghouls.

‘Damn it—!’

“Wake everyone up quickly. Ring the bell. Ring it damn hard—! So everyone can hear it, front and back—!”

Inkist Arnold sprinted to where the bell was and began to hammer it with a metal mallet as if he was smashing a ghoul’s skull, starting to clang it vigorously.

– Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding.

The loud bell sound woke everyone who was soundly asleep. Parents, with their children crying and waking up with a wail, quickly embraced them and evacuated below deck.

Mercenaries and young men who rushed over also clung to the railings and witnessed the throngs of ghouls gathered on the riverbank and along the river’s edge.

“Damn, so they really can’t enter the water after all—!”

Everyone sighed in relief, thinking it was extremely fortunate. Then, the Blind Saintess, who was also looking at the horde of ghouls, suddenly gasped and ran to Allen, pointing somewhere with her finger.

“Group Leader, over there, there’s something. Something powerful……!!”

Everyone looked in the direction where the Blind Saintess’s finger pointed. Allen, too, looked tense, wondering if it might be a Lich, given that she, who had single-handedly defeated a necromancer, was making such a fuss, but there was nothing but an empty riverbank.

“…I can’t see anything with my eyes?”

“Over there, there’s definitely something—!”

At the moment the mercenaries shook their heads, saying they couldn’t see anything, something slowly began to rise above the riverbank.

“……Ah……!”

It was the figure of a giant. A giant made of corpses, a corpse giant—.

“Damn it.”

Everyone instinctively felt that something terrible was about to happen. Allen screamed with veins bulging in his neck, telling them to row the oars right now—. Escaping from this place was the priority.

“Row the oars quickly. Everyone, stick to the oars and row—!”

Allen guessed that they might be the group of necromancers who had probably swallowed Hegel.

The corpse giant was about seven or eight meters tall with a very fat body. Its movements seemed sluggish, but its strength and toughness appeared very powerful. …And there were as many as eight of those creatures.

Everyone drew their weapons and stood near the railing, intently watching what they were doing.

The corpse giant that climbed atop the riverbank spread its massive hands so the sky could be seen. Then, ghouls began to swarm up the body of the giant, starting to stick together like a ball on its palm.

——!!

It was then that Allen, having realized their scheme, screamed at the top of his lungs.

“They’re throwing ghouls—! Block them—! Block the ones flying in——!!”

Simultaneously with his shout, the giants began to wildly throw clumps of ghouls towards the ship.

As expected, with strength matching their size, the clustered ghouls flew swiftly to the middle of the wide river in a single breath. Midway, it scattered into several pieces and fell like rain with a patter.

Thud, thud, thud, thud.

Some unfortunate ones hit the side of the ship or fell directly into the water, but most thudded onto the deck. The mercenary group tried to fend off the flying ghouls in mid-air, but there were too many to block them all.

‘Sssshit!’

Seeing them command even a corpse giant, which couldn’t be created by any ordinary skill, it was almost certain that there was a Lich on the opposing side.

‘Never expected a corpse giant to appear, let alone use it to throw ghouls onto the ship. …As expected, these fucking bastards never change—!’

Still, it was a silver lining that the ghouls didn’t swarm all at once but came in sporadic waves, making them somewhat manageable. Moreover, on their side, they had the Blind Saintess Ordnung, who wouldn’t even consider ghouls a challenge!

…And thinking he couldn’t just stand there and take it, Allen prepared to attack the corpse giant. It was to inflict as much damage as possible on that thing, which was sure to be a nuisance going forward. Fortunately, since their speed was very slow if the magic flew accurately, it surely wouldn’t be able to dodge.

“Elena, blast those bastards with magic—!”

Holding a brightly lit wand in her left hand and gathering mana in her right to create elemental magic, the milk-jug mage stretched out her arm, aiming at one of the corpse giants standing on the riverbank.

And, the fiercely flying magic—. It hit precisely on the left side of the corpse giant.

With a massive explosion, the corpse giant fell to the side. Allen was happy, thinking it was over, but then he couldn’t help but curse when he saw ghouls swarm over the giant’s torn body, replenishing its flesh.

Damn, this fucking… Shit…!

This was why Allen hated necromancers so much. As long as ghouls kept coming, they showed an absurd level of combat performance. Really, they were tru—ly a pain in the ass to deal with.

But in the game, corpse giants didn’t recover this quickly. They were more overpowered in reality.

After that, the milk-jug mage cast several more spells, but each time, the corpse giant recovered completely. Of course, it did consume a significant number of ghouls to heal, but in the end, they couldn’t take down the corpse giant.

Ghouls flying towards the ship were still numerous. As time passed, the damage also gradually increased. The mercenaries tried their best to defend, running around busily, but there were physical limits after all.

Those with some strength had all come up to the deck to fight, so the rowing was far from satisfactory. Still, somehow, by rowing fiercely, the ship had managed to get quite ahead of the corpse giant. Only then did the damned ghoul throwing finally stop.

“Damn it all….”

Once the attack ended, the exhausted people all collapsed right where they were.

“These bastards, completely insane… Damned bastards….”

Bald, Illiterate Billy gasped for breath as if he was going to die, cursing the necromancers who had orchestrated this dreadful act. Who could have possibly imagined they would attack by throwing ghouls onto the ship?

“Everyone really worked hard. And make sure to eat something to replenish your strength. Even if you don’t want to, force yourself to eat.”

Allen made sure they replenished their spent energy somehow. The members, too, reluctantly stuffed jerky into their foul-smelling mouths, chewing and swallowing it down.

Just when they thought they could catch a break, a young man watching outside from the railing loudly called for the leader.

“G… Group Leader, it’s ghouls. Ghouls are coming from over there!”

‘…The fuck…?’

Everyone sprang up and crowded around the railing where the young man was, witnessing a horde of ghouls running along the riverbank. The ghouls were much faster than the slowly flowing boat, so they quickly caught up and positioned themselves far ahead.

‘Could it be?’

The ghouls climbed up the riverbank and began to stick together, soon starting to transform into corpse giants.

“No, seriously…! What is this…!”

Inkist Arnold, witnessing that horrifying scene, cursed long as if to say this made no sense. …And everyone felt the same.

Still, it seemed the necromancer on the other side had used a lot of dark mana, as the number of corpse giants had halved compared to before. But that was still threatening enough. And then, they began to hurl clumps of ghouls towards the ship again.

Another desperate defense ensued. …And eventually, one of the following ships couldn’t withstand their mass attack and slowly drifted out of line, crashing into the riverbank.

The group that had fled as if to die again, fearing that they might be pursued once more, watched vigilantly with eyes ablaze. Fortunately, there was no chase this time.

A heart-wrenching cry of agony filled the air amidst heavy breathing. Many from Allen’s group had either died or were injured.

The dead were dropped into the river. If left alone, they would surely become ghouls and attack them… It was cruel, but that was the reality.

“Get some rest quickly. Somehow, we need to conserve our strength.”

Allen, holding the helm, put his members to sleep. The milk-jug mage, looking pitifully at the standing group leader, also closed her eyes as if fainting from exhaustion.

It was a tragic night.