Ch.10Mourning (2)

I usually made similar choices when playing games.

My preferred class was warrior, specifically the rough and tough kind that could be called a barbarian.

When I went to internet cafes, I only played the barbaric warrior wielding two axes in the MOBA games everyone typically played.

In FPS games where such options weren’t available, it would be different, but whenever possible, I tended to choose barbarian warriors.

It wasn’t for some grand reason like watching them overcome adversity inspired courage in me.

I’ll just say that smashing through whatever stood in my way suited my personality.

I enjoyed rushing in alone to wipe out enemies, and I liked wreaking havoc on enemy lines with a monstrous physique without relying on fancy equipment.

I preferred simple brute force. Rather than thinking about complex strategies, my taste leaned toward that rough style of breaking through everything.

That’s why after much trial and error, my Grim Darker build became a Homunculus Mourner build.

The Homunculus’s complete lack of magical power, charm, and inspiration didn’t matter at all to a Mourner.

And the Mourner’s poor baseline performance could be compensated for by the Homunculus’s brute physical abilities.

I glared at the mage through my darkened vision. The staggering mage was at least level 8 higher than me.

It had been 10 years since the discovery of the New Continent, right? If he had been leveling consistently during those 10 years, that would be one thing, but if not, he would be fixed at level 10.

In this game, the higher your level, the harder it was to find worthy opponents to level up against, which often meant players couldn’t reach max level before the ending.

I made a prediction without being too optimistic.

The mage’s level: 10. Maximum spell tier available: 5.

Fifth-tier magic was powerful enough to turn the tide of any battlefield. But it had casting time, so I just needed to be mindful of that.

[Time remaining: 51 seconds]

I dug my foot into the ground, keeping the time etched in the corner of my vision firmly in mind.

Crack!

The sensation of the world pulling behind me. The omnipotent feeling of this powerful body I’d never experienced before propelled me forward.

I’d never thrown a punch or even attended a common taekwondo class, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t fight at all.

I thrust my leg out as I charged. Even just my accelerating body alone was powerful, but my extended leg was like a battering ram.

KWAAAAAANG!

“Kuk…!”

The problem was my poor aim. As I twisted my body to redirect my missed attack, flames poured toward my face.

KWRRRRRRRR!

A first-tier spell. Just a basic Destruction school magic that spewed intense flames from the hand.

A practical yet powerful spell typical of the War school, which dabbled in various magical disciplines.

Contact would cause burns at minimum, and even without contact, it would obscure vision. Normally, that is.

But what about in my case?

TUHWAK!

As I pushed through the flames, the mage’s face contorted. An expression of rising anger, though he had anticipated this.

“Heretic Inquisitor!”

The mage thrust his hand downward, and a strange-shaped sword appeared in it. A peculiar golden blade with gaps throughout.

The War school’s third-tier magic, Golden Blade.

A powerful cutting magic that only the War school, masters of both martial and magical arts, could wield.

And simultaneously, an attack that could pierce through the blood rite covering my body and cause damage.

But I had a countermeasure. I kicked up an axe that had fallen to the floor.

I barely caught it as it flew up, and concentrated my consciousness.

Tsssszzzzz…!

The blood rite-covered axe gleamed darkly. I didn’t know how to properly handle or swing it, but…

SWAAACK, CLANG!

With this body, at least blocking was easy.

I raised the corner of my mouth into a smile as I saw the golden blade unable to advance past my blocking axe.

The blood rite covering my body becomes part of my body. Attacks from magical items could damage and harm it.

But blood rite on weapons was different.

[Adds 1 point each to hit rolls and damage rolls, and suspends weapon damage judgments.]

It suspends weapon damage judgments. Not that it wouldn’t be damaged at all, but that it would break when the coating was stopped.

Therefore, it was the most suitable means for blocking such weapons.

The Golden Blade, which should have sliced through ordinary weapons like cutting radishes and then cut into my body, was blocked.

That alone changed the mage’s expression. Confusion and dismay. Just as he was about to step back…

CLANG!

“Kkeuk…!”

I pushed the axe forward and kicked out.

The sensation that met my foot was not that of a human.

Burying my guilt beneath mourning, I moved forward.

The distance between me and the staggering mage rapidly decreased, and my swung axe clashed with the golden blade.

KAGAGANG!

Of course, my weapon skills were terrible. I had never learned taekwondo, let alone kendo, since childhood, and had never played baseball or anything like that.

I couldn’t afford expensive hobbies, and even when playing with friends, I voluntarily avoided anything that cost money.

I couldn’t readily agree even when they offered to pay for me. The balance between friends was quite important.

Being perceptive and intelligent, I wasn’t so thick-headed that I couldn’t notice such things. Though I can’t say pride wasn’t an issue.

So the axe I swung was a pathetic attack relying solely on physical ability.

But it worked.

Through the combination of the Homunculus’s transcendent physical abilities and the Mourner class, which focused all its firepower on the moment of mourning without magic or other special abilities…

“Kuuu…!”

As I heard the mage groan under the strain of blocking my attack, I realized this fact anew.

The Homunculus was a monster in itself.

Its strength matched that of a well-developed North American grizzly bear.

Its regenerative ability and physical toughness were equal to those of a nearly 3-meter troll.

Add to that overwhelming senses and reflexes incomparable to anything in the wild.

With such pure physical abilities alone, I pushed back Beohrt, a veteran warrior and mage.

No matter how excellent a warrior and mage he was, I was a monster.

Few humans could face a monster head-on and survive alone. Beohrt was still human.

“Ah, Father!”

A monster intervenes to save such a human, but even that is not enough.

CRACK!

From the sound behind me, it seemed Isla was playing her part.

Then I just needed to fulfill my role. I closed the distance to the mage who was finally creating space to form hand seals.

RIIIP!

My left fist embedded itself in his side, and the mage rolled across the floor with an unbalanced posture.

BANG!

My following kick violently jerked back the head of the mage who was just trying to get up.

“Kkeuk, begone!”

A forcibly created verbal command pushed my body backward, but a Homunculus was not something that would stop with just that.

KAAANG!

Finally, my downward axe strike shattered the Golden Blade, and as Beohrt’s face contorted in dismay at that moment…

I belatedly noticed something shooting toward my side.

KWAAAAAAANG!

My body was pushed. My feet left the ground. Despite trying to resist with all my strength, I couldn’t withstand it.

Even after my feet touched the ground again, I didn’t stop. I saw my kindred still pushing me.

A kindred who practiced cannibalism despite not needing to eat. A monster who glared at me with burning eyes while gritting her teeth and bleeding from various parts of her body.

I brought my clenched fist down on my kindred’s back.

She didn’t let go despite the shaking. Though it didn’t feel right to strike down on that small back, I clasped both fists together and struck down repeatedly.

BANG, BANG, BANG, KWAAANG!

Even as the floor warped and stone slabs scattered in all directions, the girl holding me didn’t let go.

Rather, the force pushing me was gradually growing stronger.

Slowly pushed back until eventually my back touched the wall.

“Hungry…”

A sudden murmur. Words flowing from the girl’s mouth. Before I could show any reaction to those words, the girl moved.

RIIIP!

“…Kuk?!”

The fist embedded in my side crushed the blood rite. As I felt the broken parts regenerating, I looked at my kindred.

The girl’s body was covered in wounds. A crossbow bolt in her half-crushed head, axes embedded in her body.

I could tell Isla had been holding her back well.

But she could no longer stop her. She had no choice but to let Eila charge at me.

The reason became apparent. The girl’s wounds were regenerating rapidly.

Regenerative abilities clearly surpassing mine. My instinct that had sensed an inferior product whispered a different word.

Unstable inferior product.

The girl finally shook off my arm and raised her fist.

“Aaaah!”

CRACK!

The girl’s swung fist pounded my face. I brought my severely jerked head back and headbutted her.

KUUUNG!

The girl retreated, clutching her head. As I pursued, she faced me again.

The ensuing fight was a sight I had never seen even in games.

Homunculus versus Homunculus.

A battle of defense and regeneration.

A contest between a superior, stable specimen and an inferior, unstable one that was more powerful in some aspects.

I soon understood why I felt the girl was inferior.

[Time remaining: 2 seconds]

As the time at the edge of my vision flashed, nearing its end.

The blood rite covering my body completely shattered into pieces falling to the floor, and the girl’s torn-off arms and jaw rolled over those fragments of my blood rite.

BANG, CRACK, BANG, BANG!

After my fists broke the girl’s spine, devoured her side, and punched a hole in her chest…

“Ugh, ah…”

The girl no longer regenerated.

She couldn’t even attack anymore. She just sat on the floor, panting.

“…Eila.”

No, it was worse than that. She was gradually crumbling.

The girl’s skin was falling off like pieces of pottery, revealing her muscles.

The mage crawled toward his daughter, who was crouched and trembling on the floor.

With arrows embedded in his arms and one side of his head soaked in blood, the mage couldn’t approach his daughter as quickly as he wanted because an axe was stuck in one of his legs.

But he finally reached her. Isla, who had been handling the mage in my place, was watching them with an expressionless face.

In a place where dozens of cannibals had been killed, father and daughter embraced each other.

She’ll eat him. Surely.

But contrary to my expectation, the girl did not devour her father.

She just trembled faintly in her father’s arms, as any child would.

Until she finally collapsed completely into a pile of ashes.

The mage looked down at the ashes of what was not even his daughter but a monster, with a bewildered face.

Watching that scene, I recalled something.

Grim Darker’s monumental first series, the quest investigating the murder case related to Beohrt.

There, the player discovers that the baron is the culprit behind the murders.

Baron Beohrt Tomula, a powerful mage and veteran warrior.

He earned the nickname “Cannibal Baron” from that incident and fled to the New Continent, which was still under investigation in the setting, not showing himself again until the end of the trilogy.

Looking back, there were several suspicious points in that quest.

Why did the baron’s daughter’s room show signs of recent use when she was supposedly already dead?

Why did the number of butchered and eaten humans far exceed what a human could possibly consume?

How could a fifth-tier mage, no matter how excellent a warrior and mage, escape the empire’s investigation network and flee to the New Continent?

I felt the answer was right before my eyes.

“Eila.”

The baron, stroking his daughter who had turned to ashes on his knees, looked up at me. His gaze was hazy.

“Kill me.”

And the baron lowered his head. He looked like a condemned man awaiting execution.

“…I’ll do it instead…”

Isla said that after looking at my face and then at the baron.

But that wouldn’t do.

I was the monster. Not anyone else.

So I stepped forward and raised the axe.