Ch.5Falling (5)

It’s embarrassing to say this myself, but I was good at games.

In the 5v5 team play games I often played with friends, I would usually choose the highest and most honorable lane.

I would tear apart opponents in my position and help my teammates—who were no better than beasts dwelling in the forest—to do their part.

The battlefield where I stood always began and ended with me, and every axe I threw would surely crack open a skull.

My friends enjoyed playing games with me. Though I couldn’t play often because I didn’t have much money despite my talent.

I stood out in various other games as well.

FPS games with walls full of holes that claimed to be strategic but were actually all about physical skill, and battle royale games ruined by hackers.

Even in most RPGs, I led my comrades to victory as an outstanding warrior.

But that was only because it was a game.

My confidence came from knowing this world originated from games, and I was well-versed in such game worlds.

Dungeons that were beneficial to enter early, items that were helpful in the beginning.

Quests that would affect quest branches in the mid-game, the locations of all kinds of formidable enemies, and encounter patterns.

I was confident I could use all that knowledge.

If the land I stood on wasn’t the New Continent, that would have been true.

“New Continent…”

It seems it hasn’t been named yet. Usually, continents are named after their discoverers.

The fact that it wasn’t named told me something about what had happened on this continent.

Many tragedies and unfortunate events. Things simply recorded as losses but actually much more horrific.

Cannibals were probably part of it. Or maybe not.

For now, it’s beneficial to assume they are. I quickened my pace and repeated the words over and over.

New Continent, New Continent.

It felt like a distinction from existing continents. And indeed it was.

The snow leopard and I ran across the snow-white land. The snow leopard hopped lightly, ignoring the knee-deep snow, while I walked steadily with my overflowing stamina.

“I want to ask you something.”

Isla, who had been walking ahead and occasionally jumping onto trees to look back, perked up her ears at my words.

That meant she was listening. The fact that she didn’t ask if it had to be now revealed something about her personality.

She must be the type who doesn’t care about such trivial things. If she found it difficult or unwanted to answer, she would simply ignore it.

Her swaying tail itself felt like an affirmation. I stared at that tail for a moment before asking.

“Can you tell me about the New Continent?”

“In detail.”

“When… was it discovered?”

“Ten years ago. By ship.”

Of course, airships are rare. Even if they exist, they’re unstable and dangerous.

Unless there’s an absolute powerhouse like one of the Five Sky Lords among the crew…

Wait, do the Five Sky Lords even exist?

I was confused, not knowing what state the world was in.

At least, judging by the fact that the New Continent had been discovered, it might be late in the third part…

The uncertainty made me anxious. As I barely managed to calm myself, Isla, who had been leaping ahead, caught up with me.

“Why are there cannibals?”

“Because they’re everywhere.”

“That may be true, but that’s not what I’m asking.”

The blowing snowstorm hurt my eyes. The snow-white landscape didn’t allow me to see beyond a certain distance.

As we walked silently, I could feel a subtle chill, suggesting that ordinary humans would struggle to walk in these conditions.

So I could be certain that the cannibals pursuing us steadily had a mage with them.

Probably a mage not affiliated with any school. With my exceptional senses, I could hear countless footsteps approaching from afar, and I clicked my tongue.

“Why is it abandoned?”

For cannibals to run rampant, there must be no law enforcement.

No matter how much of a dark fantasy this world is, depicting a ruined world like Grim Darker, there are still humans trying to maintain order, and there are human habitation zones.

To kings and lords, cannibals are annoying pests. They crush them whenever they see them, and cannibals hide from such attention or retreat to secluded areas beyond their sphere of influence.

And then they catch and eat prey that has neither strength nor luck.

They mainly appear in barren lands without law enforcement or lands abandoned for various political reasons. I found it hard to accept that the New Continent had become such a place.

“I don’t know.”

Isla’s answer wasn’t particularly helpful in this situation, but I hadn’t really expected much when I asked.

It was a difficult question that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to answer. I was just relieved that it hadn’t collapsed for some definitive reason.

“But I do know that it’s similar wherever you go.”

“Similar how?”

“There’s no safe place. Everywhere is a place of exile and refuge. It’s not a place for decent people.”

It was hell on earth. And it also meant that the snow leopard walking beside me wasn’t an ordinary, decent human.

She was a strange woman. Saying it’s good that I’m a monster, subtly revealing that she has a shady background.

I wasn’t sure if she thought I wouldn’t know, but her blue-gray eyes glancing at me seemed to be searching for something.

“Is that why there are so many of them?”

I paid attention to Isla. I didn’t know what would happen in the future, but a ranger, especially a hunter, was quite a useful temporary companion.

Isla seemed to read my attitude and exhaled deeply.

“That’s not all of it.”

“Then?”

“About half.”

Half?

That sounded as if there was a reason equal to the New Continent being a hotbed of corruption and decay, an abandoned place of exile.

But there was no chance to hear the answer. Both Isla and I stopped abruptly.

Swoosh!

This time I wasn’t too late. Though I wasn’t yet fully accustomed to my body, dodging was easy. The attack was aimed too high.

As I ducked, an arrow passed through where my neck had been. When I turned my head, I saw someone dressed similarly to the cannibals I had seen earlier.

A starving, short boy. He was holding a short bow, and only his eyes were burning as they aimed at me.

It’s chilling. I can feel his will to eat me. It felt as if he was already thinking about how to cook me after killing me.

“Isla!”

I called out her name and pulled my feet out of the deep snow.

As my leather-booted feet drew a white trajectory, Isla’s eyes widened, and she leaped up.

The white snow leopard jumped up, leaving an empty trajectory. I gritted my teeth and moved my legs.

Whoosh!

A white mist rises. It’s not a wall or anything, but it’s good for temporarily obscuring vision.

Moreover, it might make those trying to rush at me think twice.

As expected, no one rushed through the mist.

Good, at this rate—

Crack!

That’s when it happened. The mist distorted.

Something burst through its form. Something not human.

It was a spike made of flame. As the mist touched by the flame dispersed in all directions, emitting steam, I recognized the magic.

It was the Red Lance, a magic of the Destruction School.

A destructive magic that shoots out a lance made of heat.

“Shit…!”

I had thought there might be a mage, but the Destruction School?

There was no time to think. As I threw myself down, the lance embedded in the snow exploded.

With a thunderous boom, heat and snow scattered in all directions. Even in the steam that felt like it would cook my flesh, I couldn’t stay still.

“Fuck!”

Cursing, I rolled my body, and immediately another wave of heat surged.

That’s what Destruction School magic was like.

Magic that didn’t need to aim precisely and could attack over a wide area.

It was perfect for situations like this, where a snowstorm obscured proper vision.

The only way out was to create distance. As I hurriedly got up and ran, Isla, who had landed by now, swung her sling.

Whoosh!

A stone shot at the end of the rotation. The stone that flew through the mist crushed the head of a cannibal who was just approaching.

After watching the brain matter spill out, Isla turned around and started running beside me.

Since I hadn’t expected them to chase so quickly, there was no time to talk.

All I could do was keep moving my legs through the incoming snowstorm.

The terrain wasn’t even visible. Even with the exceptional senses of a homunculus, it was impossible to perfectly grasp the surroundings in a snowstorm.

Boom!

Just as I was about to duck to avoid a red lance passing over my head.

“Stop…!”

Isla, who had just shot a stone with her sling, widened her eyes and reached out to grab my wrist.

Why? I looked at the woman who was trying to pull me while gripping tightly, and belatedly noticed my body tilting.

That’s when I felt the buoyancy beneath my feet.

Reflexively, a gasp escaped my lips.

“Ah.”

I’m fucked.

My body tilted, and my vision twisted sharply in the direction of the tilt.

I’m falling. What I had stepped on was a cliff covered in snow.

I couldn’t see properly because of the snowstorm. I didn’t know there would be a cliff due to lack of experience.

I couldn’t memorize the terrain because it was the New Continent. I couldn’t properly grasp it because it was different from the northern terrain.

So I fall. There was no way to stop this fall.

To think I’d fall twice in such a short time.

As my foot slipped, my center of gravity collapsed. Though my physical abilities were excellent, I was still a novice who didn’t know how to handle them properly.

The only difference from when I first fell was that I had a companion.

Isla, who had grabbed my wrist and now had a look of dismay as she tilted.

The snow leopard beastkin bit her lip resolutely and made a sorrowful expression.

It was a pitiful expression. It reminded me of an abandoned cat I had seen once.

Can’t be helped.

Seeing her like that, I reached out and pulled her into my arms.

Yes, all of this was clearly her fault.

For some reason, she seemed to have caught the eye of the cannibals, and she saved me to use me, a monster.

If she had left me alone, I would have regenerated and gone in a different direction.

But I had already pulled Isla, who was falling, into my arms.

Anyway, what’s happened to me has already happened.

I can’t undo what’s already occurred, and letting her die for such a petty reason would be beneath me.

So I fell from the cliff with Isla in my arms.

“Ugh, kuk…!”

The cliff wasn’t even that smooth.

Rather than a typical cliff, it felt more like a ravine.

A cliff with sharp rocks protruding and stunted trees growing haphazardly.

I collided with all sorts of obstacles.

Blood welled up in my mouth, something seemed to have pierced my waist wrong, and something hit my leg and passed by first.

But I desperately twisted my body with Isla in my arms to protect her as safely as possible.

I might survive as long as my head was intact, but this snow leopard beastkin wouldn’t.

After desperately trying, we finally reached the ground.

Thud, the snow lightly rose upward, and I put the beastkin I had been holding down on the snow.

“Are you alr—”

A sudden foreign sensation in my throat. Unable to resist, bright red blood spilled onto the ground.

Fortunately, I turned my head before spitting it out, so I didn’t vomit on Isla’s face. Thank goodness. Being so white, it wouldn’t have washed off easily.

After spitting out the blood that filled my throat, I asked Isla again.

“Are you, alright?”

But there was no answer.

Instead, Isla was frozen with her eyes wide open.

She just moved her lips slightly and then dropped her head.

Concussion? But it’s better than dying. I lay face down on the ground due to my broken spine and caught my breath.

We had fallen from a cliff, but that was actually good. If I could just recover, we could create distance.

Because cliffs aren’t places ordinary humans can easily descend.

What I overlooked was that spine regeneration takes a long time. Busy movements were gradually approaching me as I lay there, unable to move a finger.

“…Ah, I’m really fucked now.”

My temporary companion was unconscious from a concussion, and my spine was regenerating.

My body could move, but not in a state where I could move quickly. Thinking I was screwed, I raised my head and saw them.

The snowstorm had cleared by now.

So I could clearly see the cannibals positioned on the cliff above and those who had come down with spears.

[Condolence 0/1]

I couldn’t use Condolence again. Skills already used can’t be reused unless I’ve slept and woken up.

My weapon was stuck a bit away, belt and all.

Could I handle all of these guys with bare hands? While also taking care of Isla, who was unconscious from a concussion?

It was impossible at my current level.

“I’ll have to try as far as I can…”

I couldn’t just sit helplessly and die. I had many things to do and many grudges to resolve.

As I raised my two fists dejectedly, the cannibals approached.

Slowly, cautiously. They gradually closed the distance while aiming their weapons.

It was almost a good distance to rush in. As I tensed my body in vigilance, they instead stopped and split to the left and right.

“What?”

Unlike me, who couldn’t grasp the situation, the cannibals were clearly trembling with fear.

To make matters worse, that fear peaked when someone passed by them. Someone coming forward, leaving the trembling cannibals behind.

It was a girl.

A girl holding a severed human leg in one hand and chewing on it.

It was certainly a disgusting sight, but I couldn’t bring myself to frown or feel repulsed.

A more intense sensation came over me.

An unfamiliar sensation I had never felt before.

A vague sensation that felt like some kind of attraction yet clearly recognized as someone else.

Looking at the girl who stopped in front of me, I vaguely realized what that sensation was.

Probably at the same time as the girl.

A girl with blonde hair and golden eyes. A cannibal girl eating a human leg raw.

She was my inferior version and my kin.

A homunculus.