Ch.282Gentleman, A March Born of Anguish

The man of the Third Eye tribe, Gentleman, was lost in thought.

Due to his painful failure at Korkas Gorge, his position was now teetering on the edge of a cliff.

Having lost the trust of his superiors and branded as incompetent by his own kind, with only about two years of lifespan remaining, he couldn’t even hope for a chance to redeem himself.

To make matters worse, orders had come down to halt all plans targeting the pioneers and focus on a new objective, rendering meaningless all the effort, time, and capital he had poured into securing connections with outlaws.

‘A change in objectives at this point? Why?’

The lifespan of the Third Eye tribe is at most about 20 years.

Considering that one must be at least 13-14 years old to function as a full-fledged member, the Third Eye tribe can exert influence in the world of Grantis for merely 6-7 years at best.

Given this racial characteristic, it was inevitable that they would adopt a lifestyle of dedicating all efforts toward a single goal.

Second chances for those who failed were extremely rare, and naturally, even contemplating diverting attention to another objective was unthinkable.

In such circumstances, the order to abandon the series of plans involving outlaws and instead pursue a new plan targeting the Dark Elf tribe was difficult to comprehend.

Especially when the content of that plan was “to place a curse on a Dark Elf living among the pioneers”—something whose purpose was hard to understand.

Even though the Third Eye tribe supposedly hated long-lived races—particularly the Elves and Dark Elves who lived the longest—weren’t the Third Eye and Dark Elves formally in a relationship of mutual non-interference?

What benefit could the Third Eye tribe possibly gain from such an act that could be considered betrayal? Gentleman simply couldn’t understand.

Though he couldn’t understand or accept it, an order was an order.

The society of the Third Eye tribe, built on strict hierarchical obedience, did not tolerate voicing the doubts and questions that had blossomed in Gentleman’s mind,

and ultimately, Gentleman had to devise a way to fulfill the order within his remaining short lifespan.

Fortunately, the connections Gentleman had built with outlaws proved greatly helpful in obtaining information about Dark Elves living in pioneer society.

One of the outlaw group’s informants who had infiltrated Moon Lake reported on the movements of “a young man who keeps a Dark Elf as a slave and surrounds himself with several beautiful women.”

Acting immediately, Gentleman ambushed the carriage of the rumored man—Gerald Fork—who was returning to Moon Lake after finishing business at Wellord Mine, and successfully hit the Dark Elf female slave accompanying him with a curse needle.

But when he reported this fact, what came back was not praise and reward, but criticism for wasting a curse on the wrong target.

It was unfair from Gentleman’s perspective, but apparently there was another one.

Another “young man surrounded by several beautiful women” and another Dark Elf living as a slave among the pioneers.

Fortunately, new information came in that they too had arrived at Moon Lake and taken on a wide-area investigation request from the Adventurer’s Guild.

Determined not to miss this opportunity, Gentleman paid a large sum to outlaws to track them, and successfully identified their route, but…

‘That woman…!’

After days of pursuit, Gentleman finally spotted Will’s group’s carriage and was shocked to recognize a familiar face through his binoculars.

The five-member adventure party he had briefly encountered at Korkas Gorge.

The blonde Elven woman who had been one of its members was sitting in the driver’s seat, steering the carriage.

‘They escaped that dungeon safely? No, more importantly, could the young man surrounded by beauties possibly be…’

To think he would encounter them again here.

Gentleman felt his chest burning with desire for revenge, but couldn’t hide a sense of unease.

These adventurers’ combat abilities far exceeded the average adventurer’s level.

Would it be possible to defeat all of them and place a curse on the Dark Elf who should be riding inside the carriage?

‘No… I must do it. If I fail again, there won’t be a next time.’

It was an extremely unfavorable gamble, but Gentleman, backed into a corner, had no other choice.

Fortunately, this time he had brought powerful monsters instead of useless gang members, so he wouldn’t be defeated so pathetically as before.

Convincing himself thus, Gentleman loaded his last curse needle into his gun.

~~~ Near the Dungeon Overflow Site ~~~

Gentleman, who launched a night raid, commanded an unexpectedly large force.

They were mysterious beasts with wolf-like torn mouths, bear-like broad shoulders, and dinosaur-like thick tails.

These beasts, resembling no animal I knew, effortlessly penetrated the Repellation Field, and their gaping mouths contained several rows of sharp teeth.

Their appearance suggested creatures designed solely to tear and kill… or perhaps “creatures” isn’t the right term.

After all, their eyes showed neither wildness nor vitality—

“Beasts without eyeballs. So that’s why Gerald thought they were ‘undead beasts.'”

“Indeed. No life force can be felt from these beasts at all. However, seeing their lack of reaction to Celestial Arrow Heads, they don’t classify as undead.”

‘Bang! Bang! Bang!’

‘Taang!’

Only four of us—myself, Phyllis, Mina, and Seti—were fighting against the beasts emerging from all directions.

Iris was locked inside the cabin to avoid getting sniped during the chaotic battle, and Jessica was also staying by her side.

In this situation, Seti, our vanguard, couldn’t cover all directions, so it was inevitable that the other three of us would be targeted by the beasts, but…

“Hihihing~”

‘Thwack!’

“Kyaong!”

Ancestor, maintaining his black horse form, was proving to be an unexpectedly good tanker, kicking away and stomping on approaching beasts with his hooves.

Being an automaton, Ancestor’s body beneath the leather was made of hard alloy, making him resistant to the beasts’ teeth, and regardless of their physical resistance, a back kick powered by 8 horsepower delivered formidable stopping power.

‘Taaang!’

“Kekang!?”

That was the sixth time Mina’s large-caliber pistol had blown a huge hole in a beast that had been slammed against the rock face and couldn’t recover.

The number of beasts we had taken down had easily surpassed 20.

‘Thuk! Thuk!’

“…Phew.”

Seti, who had pierced the hearts of two beasts with lightning-fast double thrusts, twirled his spear to shake off the black mana that clung like slime, catching his breath.

Most undead monsters have no weak points and must be damaged all over until they fall, but the fact that these beasts died just from having their hearts destroyed was further evidence they weren’t undead.

“Seti, are you okay?”

“Yeah. They’re strong, but they don’t block or dodge attacks, so they’re actually easier to deal with. More importantly, I’ve figured something out.”

“What is it?”

“These monsters—never more than six appear at once.”

Reflecting on the battle so far after hearing Seti’s words, it was indeed true that the number of beasts showing themselves at any one time had been limited to six or fewer.

With so many monsters at his disposal, the best tactic would be to deploy them all at once to overwhelm us.

The fact that he wasn’t doing so, along with how they passed through the Repellation Field without issue, suggested…

“These beasts aren’t ordinary monsters. They’re summons, and not living creatures or spirits, but manufactured beings.”

“Like Ancestor or Aquila?”

“Though not mechanically constructed inside. I’ve heard that human barrier magic works by affecting the instincts of beasts and monsters to make them reluctant to approach, so beings without self-awareness might be immune to its effects.”

Summoned monsters without self-awareness.

That would explain the limit on how many could appear at once, but conversely, it meant that continuing to defeat these monsters wouldn’t improve our situation.

Of course, he couldn’t summon familiars infinitely without paying some price, so this assault would eventually reach its limit, but whether that would happen before or after we collapsed from injuries and exhaustion was unknown.

‘In the end, defeating Gentleman would be the shortest path to solving all our problems. The question is, where is he hiding…’

Despite the beasts’ assault having continued for quite some time, Gentleman hadn’t shown himself at all.

I understood his strategy of waiting until Iris, the Dark Elf, showed herself, but to use the curse, he would need to be waiting within range of his needle gun.

Or perhaps he planned to wear down all our fighting members with his familiars before finishing us off at leisure?

‘We’ll have to hold out as long as possible and rely on Jessica’s skills…’

Gentleman waiting for a chance to shoot his curse needle at Iris, and me waiting for a chance to land a skill shot on Gentleman.

The campsite, filled with the howls of beasts, was transforming into an arena of vigilance where each side watched for the other’s opening.